Practical  Queen 
Rearing 

By  FRANK  C.  PELLETT 

Associate  Editor  American  Bee  Journal,  Former  State 

Apiarist  of   Iowa,   Author  of  "Productive 

Beekeeping"  and  "Our  Backdoor 

Neighbors." 


Queen,  Drone,  and  Worker  Photographed 
from  Life.     Slightly  Enlarged. 


AMERICAN  BEE  JOURNAL, 

Hamilton,  Illinois. 


Univ.  Library,  UC  Santa  Cruz  1997 


COPYBIGHT  19J8 
BY 

C.  PEILEIT 


To  my  good  friend 
M.  G.  DADANT. 


Preface 

The  writer  has  had  the  privilege  of  visiting  many  of  the 
most  extensive  queen  breeders  of  America,  both  north  and  south, 
and  has  tried  to  present,  in  the  following  pages,  all  the  best 
methods  of  practice  in  use  in  these  various  apiaries.  The  book 
is  small,  as  it  has  been  thought  wise  to  make  the  descriptions 
brief  and  to  the  point,  rather  than  to  elaborate  them  fully. 
Beekeepers  are  usually  busy  men,  and  want  facts  presented  as 
simply  and  directly  as  possible  in  a  book  of  this  kind. 

The  works  of  Alley,  Doolittle,  and  Sladen  have  been  freely 
consulted,  as  well  as  various  texts  and  bulletins  on  beekeeping. 
An  effort  has  been  made  to  make  the  book  worthy  of  its  title, 
"Practical  Queen-Rearing,"  and  methods  not  of  practical 
value  have  largely  been  eliminated. 

The  illustrations  for  the  most  part  have  appeared  in  the 
American  Bee  Journal,  many  of  them  in  connection  with  the 
author's  contributions.  A  few  have  been  borrowed  from  other 
works,  as  indicated  in  the  text. 

Beekeeping  has  shown  a  remarkable  propensity  toward 
expansion  during  recent  months,  the  tendency  being  more  and 
more  toward  specialization.  The  demand  for  good  queens 
has  taxed  even  the  most  extensive  yards  to  the  limit.  It  is 
with  the  hope  that  the  methods  here  given  will  prove  useful, 
and  that  the  man  of  experience,  as  well  as  the  novice,  may  find 
something  of  value  in  its  pages,  that  this  book  is  offered  to  the 
public. 

FRANK  C.  PELLETT. 

Atlantic,  Iowa,  December  27,   1917. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I <> 

Races  of  Bees. 

Varieties  of  Mellifica. 

Black  or  German  Bees. 

The  Cyprian  Bee. 

The  Holy-Land  Bees  or  Syrians. 

The  Italian   Bee. 

Carniolans. 

Caucasians. 

Banat   Bees. 

Tunisian  or  Punic  Bees. 

Egyptians. 

Other  Races. 

Chapter  II  : 19 

Life  Story  of  the  Bee. 

Life  of  the  Queen. 

The    Drone. 

Queen  Rearing  in  Nature. 

Chapter  III 23 

Improvement  of  Stock  by  Breeding. 

Desirable  Traits  in  Breeding  Stock. 

Control  of  Drones. 

Mating  in  Confinement  a  Failure. 

Parthenogenesis. 

Chapter  IV 31 

Equipment  for  Queen  Rearing. 
Grafting  House. 
Mating  Hives: 

The  Rauchfuss  Mating  Boxes. 

Baby   Nuclei. 

Small  Hives. 

Divided   Standard    Hives. 
Feeders. 
Nursery  Cages: 

Alley   Nursery   Cage. 

Rauchfuss   Nursery   Cage. 
Shipping   Cages. 

Chapter  V .... 47 

Early  Methods  of  Queen  Rearing: 
Quinby's  Method. 
The  Alley  Plan. 

Chapter  VI.  ....S3 

Present    Day   Methods  of  Queen   Rearing: 
The  Davis  Method  of  Using  Drone  Comb. 
Natural  Built  Cells  by  the  Miller  Plan. 
Big  Batches  of  Cells  by  the  Case  Method. 
The  Doolittle  Cell-cup  Method. 


vi  CONTENTS 


Chapter  VII .63 

Preparation  for  Cells: 
Getting  Jelly  to  Start. 
The  Author's  Plan. 
Transferring  the  Larvae. 

Chapter  VIII 71 

Getting  Cells  Started: 

Removing  Queen  and  Brood. 

The  Swarm  Box. 

Rearing  Queens  in  Queen-right  Colonies. 

Feeding. 

Chapter  IX 77 

Care  of  Finished   Cells: 
Use  of  Cell  Protectors. 
Formation  of  Nuclei. 
Stocking  Mating  Boxes  or  Baby  Nuclei. 

Chapter  X.. 83 

Combining  Mating  with  Making  of  Increase. 

Chapter  XI 87 

Shipping  Queens: 
Making  the  Candy. 
Caging  the  Queens. 

What  the  Buyer  has  a  Right  to  Expect. 
Grading. 

Chapter  XII... ...  93 

The  Introduction  of  Queens: 
Details  of  Cage  Methods. 
Direct    Introduction. 
Honey  and  Flour  Methods. 
Water  Method. 
Introduction  of  Virgins. 

Chapter  XIII 101 

The  Spread  of  Disease  from  the  Queen  Yard. 


INDEX 


Page 

Albino  bees 13 

Alley  nursery  cage 44 

Alley  plan  of  queen  rearing 49 

American  bees. 10 

Apis  dorsata.. 9 

Apis  florea 9 

Apis  Indica 10 

Apis  mellifica .10 

Artificial  cells 60 

Baby  nuclei  35 — 81 

Banat  bees 16 

Benton  queen  cage 44 — 87 

Black  bees .....10 — 1 1 

Breeder,  good  traits  of 25 

Breeding,  to  improve  stock 23 

Cages 42—44—87 

Cage  method  of  introducing 94 

Caging  queens 88 

Candy 87 

Case  method  of  queen  rearing 57 

Carniolan  bees 15 

Cell  block 55—78 

Cell  protectors.- 79 

Cells  care  of... 77 

Cells  artificial 60 

Cells  preparation  for.. 63 

Cells  starting 71 

Cyprian  bees 12 

Caucasian  bees 16 


Page 

Direct  methods 96 

Flour  method 98 

Smoke  method 96 

Water  method... 98 

Italian  bees 1 1—13 

Mating: 

In  confinement 28 

Artificial 28 

In  greenhouses 29 

Mating  hives 33 — 38 

Mating-hives,  stocking. 81 

Miller  method  of  queen  rearing 55 

Nuclei 33—35 

Formation  of 80 

Baby..._ 35—81 

Nursery  cages 42 — 44 

Parthenogenesis 29 

Present  day  methods  of  queen  reaiing 53 

Punic  bees 17 


Queen,  life  of 19 

Queen  rearing 

in  nature 21 

early  methods  of 47 

equipment  for 31 

Alley  plan  of 49 

Davis  plan  of 53 

Case  method  of 57 

Hopkins  method 57 

Doolittle  method 60 

Miller  method 55 


Davis  plan  of  queen  rearing 53 

Davis  mating  hives 38 — 40 — 41 

Direct  introduction  of  queens..  96  Present  day  methods 53 

Disease,  spread  from  queen  yards 101  Quinby's  method ..48 

Doolittle  method  of  queen  rearing 60  In  queenright  colonies 75 

Drones 20        Races  of  bees 9 

Drones  control  of 26  Albinos._ 13 

Banats 16 

Early  methods  of  queen  rearing 31  Blacks... 10 — 1 1 

Egyptian  bees 17  Carniolans 15 

Equipment  for  queen  rearing 47  Caucasians ..16 

Cyprians 12 

Feeders 41  Egyptians 17 

Feeding .....76  Goldens 15 — 26 

Flour  method  of  introducing  queens 98  Germans.... 10 — 1 1 

Gentle  stock  for  breeders. 25  Holylands..._ 13 

German  bees 10—1 1  Italians.- 11—13 

Giant  bees  of  India 9  Punic    ..  _  .  .                                                    17 

Golden  bees 15—26  Syrians. 13 

Grading  queens 89  Tunisan 17 

Grafting 65—66        Rauchfusscage.... 44 

Grafting  house. 31        Rauchfuss  mating  hi/e 34 

Grafting  in  drone  comb 53        Royal  jelly 63 

Grafting  tools 66 

Shipping  cages 44 

Holy  land  bees 13        Shipping  queens 87 

Honey  method  of  introducing  queens.. 98        Stocking  mating-hi  ves .81 

Hopkins  method  of  queen  rearing 57        Swarm  box _  40 — 74 

Hybrid  bees 11 

Transferring  larvae 65 

Increase,  combined  with  mating 83 

Introduction  of  queens 93        Virginqueens 90 

Cage  method 94  introducing _ 98 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Queen,  drone  and  worker .  .Title  page 

Queen  cells  built  under  the  swarming  impulse. Fig.      1 

A  large  average  production  is  only  secured  by  careful  selection 

Combs  built  without  foundation  contain  much  drone  comb 

Full  sheets  of  foundation  insure  worker  combs _ 

Grafting  house  in  use  by  southern  queen  breeders _ 

Rauchfuss  mating  box..,. '. 

A  baby  nucleus  at  the  Minnesota  University... 

Small  mating  hives  in  the  Strong  queen  yard 

Mating  hives  using  shallow  extracting  frames 

Eight  frame  hive  adapted  for  four  compartment  mating  hive.... 
Eight  frame  hive  divided  into  three  parts,  with  standard  frames.... 

Ten  frame  hive  divided  into  two  parts 

Feeding  with  Mason  jars  at  the  Penn  yards „ 

The  Alley  Nursery  Cage 

The  Rauchfuss  Nursery  Cage  

Frame  for  holding  Rauchfuss  Cages 


Comb  cut  down  for  cell-building  by  Alley  plan __ 

Every  alternate  egg  is  crushed  by  Alley  plan 

Queen  cells  by  Alley  plan 

Batch  of  finished  cells  grafted  with  drone  comb 

Cutting  away  cells  built  on  drone  comb 

Cell  block  for  handling  finished  cells.. _ 

Queen  cells  built  naturally  by  Miller  plan 

Frame  for  holding  comb  for  cell  building  by  Case  method 

Frame  of  prepared  cups  by  Doolittle  method 

Batch  of  finished  cells  by  Doolittle  method 

Larvae  not  to  exceed  thirty-six  hours  of  age  should  be  used  for 


grafting- 


Strong  colonies  should  be  used  for  cell-building _. 

Strong  cell-finishing  colony _ 

Finished  cells  by  the  Doolittle  method 

Method  of  placing  ripe  cell  in  nucleus  which  has  no  brood 

Cell  protectors 

A  queen  mating  yard  composed  of  standard  hives 

A  queen-rearing  apiary  in  Tennessee.... 

Queen  mating  nuclei  under  the  pine  trees  of  Alabama.-- 

The  Benton  mailing  cage 

The  Miller  introducing  cage 

A  Mississippi  queen-rearing  yard 

A  Georgia  queen-rearing  apiary 

A  queen  yard  in  Minnesota 


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40 


PRACTICAL  QUEEN 
REARING 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Races  of  Bees. 

The  family  of  bees  is  an  extensive  one,  embracing  hundreds 
of  species.  On  a  warm  day  in  spring,  one  can  often  see  many 
different  kinds  of  solitary  wild  bees  among  the  blossoms  of  the 
fruit  trees.  Aside  from  their  usefulness  in  the  pollination  of 
plants,  these  are  of  little  economic  importance.  A  little  higher 
in  the  scale  we  find  the  bumble  bees  living  together  in  small 
families  of,  at  most,  a  few  dozen  individuals.  In  the  tropics 
the  stingless  bees  are  still  farther  advanced  in  their  social  organ- 
ization, and  store  small  quantities  of  honey  which  is  often 
taken  from  them  for  table  use  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  warm 
countries.  However,  the  amount  of  honey  stored  is  small 
compared  with  the  product  of  a  colony  of  honeybees.  While 
an  extended  study  of  the  habits  of  the  various  species  of  wild 
bees  would  open  a  fascinating  branch  of  natural  history,  the 
genus  Apis  is  the  only  one  that  is  of  practical  importance  to 
the  honey  producer. 

Much  interest  has  been  manifested  in  the  giant  bee  of 
India  and  Ceylon,  Apis  dorsata,  and  at  one  time  an  attempt 
was  made  to  introduce  it  into  this  country.  This  bee  builds 
a  gigantic  comb  in  the  open,  usually  suspended  from  a  branch 
of  a  forest  tree.  Dorsata  has  a  reputation  of  being  very  fierce, 
which  Benton  denies,  saying  they  are  no  more  so  than  other 
bees.  Its  habit  is  such  that  it  is  very  improbable  that  it 
could  be  induced  to  occupy  a  hive,  because  of  its  single  large 
comb,  as  our  honeybees  must  do,  to  be  properly  managed. 

In  the  east  there  is  another  species,  Apis  florea,  a  gentle 
little  bee,  much  smaller  than  the  honeybee.  It  builds  a  delicate 


10  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

little  comb  usually  built  around  a  twig.  The  quality  of  the 
honey  is  very  good  and  the  combs  white,  but  the  amount  of 
honey  stored  -in  these  diminutive  combs  is  so  small  that  they 
can  never  be  of  much  practical  importance,  even  though  it 
were  possible  to  induce  them  to  remain  in  hives,  which  is  very 
doubtful. 

There  is  a  species  in  Ceylon  and  other  eastern  countries 
which  has  been  domesticated  with  some  success,  Apis  Indica.  It 
is  small  and  excitable,  and  generally  inferior  to  the  European 
races.  It  is  known  as  the  common  East  Indian  honeybee. 
The  natives  hive  them  in  small  round  earthenware  pots,  later 
driving  them  out  with  smoke  to  get  the  honey.  Attempts 
to  keep  them  in  frame  hives  of  proper  dimensions  have  met  with 
some  success,  but  the  quantity  of  honey  secured  is  reported 
as  very  discouraging.  This  species  is  regarded  as  a  variety 
of  mellifica  by  some,  rather  than  a  distinct  species.  In  any 
case  it  has  little  claim  of  interest  to  the  practical  beekeeper 
who  has  the  better  kinds. 

Varieties  of  Mellifica. 

All  the  honeybees  known  by  different  names,  such  as  Italians, 
Blacks,  Carniolans,  etc.,  are  now  regarded  as  varieties  of  one 
species,  Apis  mellifica.  The  differences  are  such  as  naturally 
result  from  being  bred  for  long  periods  of  time  in  particular 
environments.  Each  variety  has  adapted  itself  to  the  particular 
conditions  under  which  it  lived  until  it  is,  very  probably,  better 
adapted  to  that  particular  condition,  by  natural  selection,  than 
any  other  race  or  variety  would  be.  Since  none  of  the  honey- 
bees are  native  to  America,  it  can  only  be  determined  by  trial 
which  of  the  varieties  is  best  suited  to  our  conditions.  The 
Blacks  or  German  bees  were  first  introduced  into  this  country, 
and  were  very  generally  acclimated  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  before  any  other  race  was  introduced.  As  in  many 
localities  others  have  since  been  introduced,  a  multitude  of 
crosses,  commonly  spoken  of  as  hybrids,  have  resulted.  In 
localities  where  no  particular  attention  is  paid  to  the  breeding 
of  bees  a  new  variety  Avhich  might  well  be  called  the  American  bee 


BLACK     OR    GERMAN     BEES  11 

is  being  developed,  as  a  result  of  these  crosses  and  the  natural 
adaptation  to  a  new  environment.  The  term  "hybrid"  is 
usually  used  to  designate  any  bee  which  is  not  pure,  of  one  race 
or  another.  It  is  quite  probable  that  time  will  demonstrate 
that  the  race  which  is  best  suited  to  the  conditions  of  California 
is  not  the  best  for  New  York  or  Minnesota.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  the  Italians  are  the  only  ones  which  have  been  given  an 
extended  trial  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  except  the  blacks, 
which  were  the  first  to  be  introduced.  There  is  still  room  for 
extensive  experiments  in  comparative  tests  of  the  races  under 
the  various  conditions  of  different  sections  of  America. 

Black  or  German  Bees.  * 

Black  bees  are  very  generally  supposed  to  have  been  first 
introduced  into  America  from  Germany  but  very  probably 
they  came  first  from  Spain.  The  native  black  bees  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  Germany  and  Spain  are  said  to  vary  but  little. 
The  ground  color  of  the  whole  body  is  black  with  the  bands  of 
whitish  hairs  on  the  abdomen  very  narrow  and  inconspicuous. 
F.  W.  L.  Sladen,  who  was  at  one  time  extensively  engaged  in 
queen  rearing  in  England,  says  that  "In  the  cool  and  windy 
summer  climate  of  the  British  Isles  it  is  unsurpassed  by  any  other 
pure  race  for  industry  in  honey  gathering,  working  early  and 
late." 

The  blacks  are  easy  to  shake  off  their  combs,  and  cap  the 
comb  honey  very  white,  making  an  attractive  product.  Since 
extracted  honey  is  coming  more  and  more  into  favor,  the  mat- 
ter of  white  capping  is  of  constantly  diminishing  importance. 
One  of  the  worst  objections  to  the  blacks  is  their  excitable 
nature.  When  the  hive  is  opened  they  run  about  nervously, 
and  often  boil  out  over  the  top  in  a  most  disconcerting  manner. 
The  queens  are  difficult  to  find,  because  of  the  fact  that  instead 


*" According  to  the  quotations  from  the  American  Bee  Journal,  common  bees  were  im- 
ported into  Florida,  by  the  Spaniards,  previous  to  1763,  for  they  were  first  noticed  in  West 
Florida  in  that  year.  They  appeared  in  Kentucky  in  1780,  in  New  York  in  1793,  and 
west  of  the  Mississippi  in  1797," — Dadant,  Langstroth  on  the  Honey  Bee. 


12  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

of  remaining  quietly  on  the  comb  attending  to  business,  they 
run  with  the  workers  and  often  hide.  They  do  not  gather 
as  much  surplus  on  the  average  as  Italians,  under  American 
conditions,  are  more  inclined  to  be  cross,  and  are  more  suscep- 
tible to  brood  diseases.  It  is  a  difficult  matter  to  save  an  apiary 
of  black  bees,  once  they  become  infected  with  European  foul- 
brood.  In  comparison  with  Italians,  the  latter  have  proven 
so  much  better  that  there  is  a  very  general  tendency  to  replace 
the  blacks  with  Italians  and  in  many  limited  neighborhoods 
where  beekeeping  is  scientifically  followed,  the  blacks  have 
disappeared. 

The  Cyprian  Bee. 

The  Cyprian  bees  are  in  many  respects  similar  to  Italians. 
The  pure  Cyprians  are  said  to  be  yellow  on  the  sides  and  under 
parts  of  the  abdomen,  as  well  as  having  the  three  yellow  bands 
as  do  the  Italians,  but  the  tip  is  very  black.  They  are  some- 
what smaller  than  the  Italians,  and  somewhat  more  slender 
and  wasplike  in  appearance.  According  to  Alley,  "The  pos- 
terior rings  of  the  bodies  of  the  workers  are  broader  than  those 
of  the  Italian,  and,  when  examined,  it  will  be  noticed  that 
the  upper  portion  is  partially  black,  terminating  on  the  sides 
in  a  perfect  half  moon,  generally  two.  It  will  also  be  observed 
that  there  is  no  intermingling  of  color.  With  pure  Cyprian 
bees  this  is  an  invariable  and  uniform  marking."  They  also 
have  a  golden  shield  between  the  wings. 

The  queens  are  extremely  prolific,  but  the  workers  are  very 
cross  and  not  easily  subdued  by  smoke.  After  extended  trial 
in  America,  they  have  found  few  friends  because  of  this  char- 
acteristic. The  American  beekeeper  demands  gentle  bees. 
Aside  from  the  revengeful  disposition,  they  have  many  good 
qualities.  They  are  said  to  be  long  lived,  to  build  less  drone 
comb  than  other  races,  to  fly  farther  for  stores  and  to  be  extreme- 
ly hardy,  wintering  well.  They  continue  breeding  late  in  fall, 
and  are  not  inclined  to  dwindle  in  spring.  They  build  many 
queen  cells  in  preparation  for  swarming,  sometimes  as  many 


THE     ITALIAN     BEE  13 

as  a  hundred.     They  defend  their  stores  readily  against  robbers, 
and  are  strong  and  swift  on  the  wing. 

These  bees  are  native  to  the  Island  of  Cyprus,  and  were 
first  introduced  into  this  country  from  Europe.  The  first 
direct  importation  was  probably  that  by  D.  A.  Jones  of  Ontario, 
in  1880.  It  is  not  probable  that  pure  stock  can  now  be  found 
in  this  country.  It  is  thought  that  some  strains  of  the  golden 
Italians  have  been  mixed  with  Cyprians  in  developing  the  bright 
yellow  color. 

The  Holy-Land  Bees,  or  Syrians. 

The  Holy-land  bees  are  very  similar  to  the  Cyprians  in 
appearance,  having  the  golden  shield  on  the  thorax,  but  they 
show  whiter  fuzz  rings  than  either  Cyprians  or  Italians.  They 
were  introduced  into  this  country  by  D.  A.  Jones  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Cyprians.  These  bees  are  native  to  Palestine,  and 
are  said  to  be  common  in  the  vicinity  of  Bethlehem,  Jerusalem 
and  other  Bible  cities.  While  they  attracted  much  attention  for 
a  short  time  following  their  introduction,  they  were  shortly 
abandoned  and  are  no  longer  offered  for  sale  in  America,  as  far 
as  the  writer  can  ascertain.  They  are  said  to  swarm  excessively 
and  to  winter  poorly,  as  well  as  to  propolize  badly. 

THE  ALBINOS,  formerly  popular,  are  probably  of  Holy- 
land  origin,  mixed  with  Italian,  according  to  Root.  The  Albino 
resembles  the  Italian  in  appearance  except  that  the  fuzz  rings 
on  the  abdomen  are  bright  grey  or  white.  Root  reports  them 
as  decidedly  inferior  as  honey  gatherers. 

The  Italian  Bee. 

The  Italian  bee  is  by  far  the  most  popular  race  in  America. 
It  has  been  tried  under  all  kinds  of  conditions  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  with  satisfactory  results.  It  is  resistant  to  wax  moth 
and  European  foulbrood,  a  good  honey  gatherer  and  gentler 
than  the  black  race  which  preceded  it. 

This  race  was  first  introduced  into  this  country  from  Italy. 


14  PRACTICAL    QUEEN     REARING 

The  story  of  the  first  importations  is  told  by  Mr.  Richard 
Colvin  of  Baltimore,  in  the  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1863,  as  follows: 

The  first  attempt  to  import  the  Italian  honey-bee  into  the  United 
States,  it  is  believed,  was  made  about  the  year  1855  by  Messrs.  Samuel 
Wagner  and  Edward  Jessup,  of  York,  Pennsylvania;  but  in  consequence 
of  inadequate  provision  for  their  safety  on  so  long  a  voyage,  they  perished 
before  their  arrival. 

In  the  winter  of  1858-59  another  attempt  was  made  by  Mr.  Wagner, 
Rev.  L.  L.  Langstroth  and  myself.  The  order  was  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  surgeon  of  the  steamer  (to  whose  charge  the  bees  were  to  have  been 
committed  on  the  return  voyage),  with  instructions  to  transmit  it  to 
Mr.  Dzierzon  on  reaching  Liverpool;  but  in  consequence  of  his  determin- 
ing to  leave  the  ship  to  engage  in  other  service  on  his  arrival  at  Bremen, 
it  was  not  done  and  the  effort  failed.  Subsequently  arrangements  were 
made  by  which,  in  the  latter  part  of  that  year,  we  received  seven  living 
queens.  At  the  same  time,  and  on  board  the  same  steamer,  Mr.  P.  J. 
Mahan,  of  Philadelphia,  brought  one  or  more  queens,  which  were  sup- 
posed to  be  of  doubtful  purity.  Only  two  or  three  young  queens  were 
reared  by  us  during  that  fall  and  winter,  and  in  the  following  spring  we 
found  all  our  imported  stock  had  perished. 

In  conjunction  with  Mr.  Wagner  I  determined  to  make  another 
trial,  and  another  order  was  immediately  dispatched.  The  queens, 
however,  did  not  arrive  until  the  following  June.  Meantime,  about 
the  month  of  May,  Mr.  S.  B.  Parsons,  of  Flushing,  Long  Island,  received 
an  importation  of  them  from  the  northern  part  of  Italy,  some  of  the 
progeny  of  which  he  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Rev.  L.  L.  Langstroth, 
Mr.  W.  W.  Carey,  Mr.  M.  Quinby,  and  other  skilful  apiarians,  who  with 
Mr.  C.  W.  Rose,  a  subsequent  importer,  and  perhaps  some  others,  have 
bred  and  disseminated  them  pretty  widely  through  our  country." 

There  was  much  interest  in  the  new  race,  and,  for  a  long 
time,  queens  commanded  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars  each  in 
some  cases.  The  late  Charles  Dadant  was  one  of  the  early 
breeders,  who  imported  stock  from  Italy  direct. 

The  Italian  has  been  bred  in  America  on  such  an  extensive 
scale  that  various  strains  have  been  developed.  The  so-called 
three  banded  or  leather  colored  Italians  are  probably  more 
nearly  typical  than  the  goldens  or  five  banded  Italians.  The 
Italian  bee  from  northern  Italy  has  three  yellow  bands,  with 
pronounced  bands  of  whitish  or  grey  hair  on  each  of  the  seg- 
ments except  the  first  and  the  last.  It  is  a  mild  tempered  bee, 
usually  being  gentle  and  quiet  under  manipulation.  Unlike 
the  blacks  these  bees  cling  closely  to  their  combs,  and  the  queen 
will  often  continue  her  egg  laying  when  the  comb  on  which  she 
is  working  is  removed  from  the  hive  and  held  up  to  the  light. 


CARNIOLANS  15 

It  is  a  prolific  race,  and  stands  extremes  of  temperature  very 
well.  It  winters  well  and  is  not  adversely  affected  by  the  heat 
of  the  dry  summers  of  the  central  west.  The  beekeeper  who 
does  not  care  to  experiment  will  do  well  to  stick  to  the  Italians, 
at  least  until  other  races  have  been  given  more  extended  tests 
than  have  so  far  been  given.  While  there  are  a  few  warm 
advocates  of  Caucasians  and  Carniolans,  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  practical  beekeepers  contend  that  the  Italians  are 
the  best  race.  It  is  only  fair  to  state,  however,  that  no  other 
race  has  been  given  the  same  opportunity  to  demonstrate  its 
good  points,  and  it  is  altogether  probable  that  some  other  race 
may  yet  prove  best  adapted  for  certain  climatic  conditions. 

THE  GOLDENS,  are  the  result  of  special  breeding  by 
selecting  the  queens  whose  progeny  show  the  brightest  color. 
It  is  thought  that  some  strains  of  goldens  are  somewhat  mixed 
with  the  Cyprians,  from  which  ancestry  came  the  bright  color. 
Some  breeders  have  paid  so  much  attention  to  selecting  the 
brightest  colored  individuals,  regardless  of  other  traits,  that  some 
strains  are  unduly  cross,  are  poor  honey  gatherers  and  are  not 
considered  hardy.  On  the  other  hand  there  are  strains  which 
have  been  selected  with  due  care  to  retain  other  desirable  traits 
along  with  the  bright  color,  which  are  gentle  and  productive. 

Carniolans. 

The  Carniolans  resemble  the  blacks  but  are  larger,  the 
abdomens  are  of  a  more  bluish  cast  and  the  abdominal  rings 
are  more  distinct.  They  have  the  reputation  of  being  excessive 
swarmers,  although  the  queens  are  extremely  prolific.  They 
are  a  gentle  race  and  reported  to  be  good  honey  gatherers,  and 
to  stand  extremely  cold  winters.  Because  of  their  excessive 
swarming  tendency,  they  are  not  popular  with  American  bee- 
keepers, but  the  dark  color  is  sufficient  in  itself  to  condemn  them 
with  many  who  admire  the  bright  colored  bees. 

It  is  important  that  they  be  given  a  fair  trial  in  northern 
sections,  with  a  hive  adapted  to  discourage  swarming,  by  giving 
plenty  of  room  for  the  extremely  prolific  queens.  The  Dadant 


16  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

hive  or  Langstroth  frames  of  jumbo  depth  are  best  suited  for 
this  purpose  of  any  hive  in  the  market.  Since  they  winter 
well  and  the  colonies  are  inclined  to  be  populous,  it  would  seem 
that  they  should  be  especially  adapted  to  extracted  honey 
production  in  colder  latitudes,  'if  the  swarming  tendency  can 
be  overcome. 

This  race  is  native  to  the  province  of  Carniola,  Austria, 
and  was  first  brought  to  this  country  in  the  eighties.  It  is 
said  that  there  is  much  variation  in  the  markings  of  the  bees 
in  the  province  from  which  they  came.  They  deposit  very  little 
propolis,  and  are  quiet  on  the  combs  during  manipulation,  two 
desirable  traits. 

Caucasians. 

The  Caucasians  greatly  resemble  the  blacks  in  appearance, 
but  they  are  very  different  in  disposition.  They  are  said  to  be 
the  gentlest  race  of  bees  known.  The  most  serious  objection 
to  them  is  the  fact  that  they  deposit  propolis  freely,  being  the 
opposite  of  Carniolans  in  this  respect.  They  swarm  freely 
and  build  quantities  of  burr  and  brace  combs,  which  is  a  source 
of  annoyance  to  the  beekeeper.  They  have  many  desirable 
traits,  wintering  well,  capping  their  honey  white  and  not  being 
inclined  to  drift  into  the  hives  of  other  colonies  than  their  own. 
Since  they  resemble  the  blacks  so  closely,  it  is  next  to  impossible 
to  tell  whether  or  not  they  are  pure,  which  is  a  serious  drawback 
to  the  careful  breeder.  A  few  who  have  tried  them  extensively 
are  warm  in  their  praises  of  the  Caucasians  and  contend  that 
they  are  superior  to  the  Italians.  While  this  may  be  doubted, 
they  are  worthy  of  a  more  general  trial  than  they  have  so  far 
received.  A  few  breeders  now  offer  queens  for  sale. 

Banat  Bees. 

The  Banats  come  from  Hungary  and  greatly  resemble  the 
Carniolans.  Some  contend  that  they  are  not  distinct.  They 
are  very  gentle,  dark  in  color  and  very  prolific.  They  build 


EGYPTIANS  17 

up  rapidly  in  spring  and  are  said  *to  be  less  inclined  to  swarm 
than  the  Carniolans. 

Mr.  T.  W.  Livingstone  of  Leslie,  Georgia,  had  Banats, 
exclusively,  in  his  apiaries  and  regarded  them  highly.  He 
reported  them  as  very  gentle,  building  up  early  in  spring  and 
rearing  brood  all  season. 

Tunisian  or  Punic  Bees. 

This  is  a  black  race  coming  from  the  north  coast  of  Africa. 
Although  given  a  trial  in  America  they  did  not  meet  with  favor 
and  none  are  now  present  in  this  country  so  far  as  known.  They 
are  bad  propolizers,  extremely  cross,  and  do  not  winter  well. 
They  seem  to  have  been  lately  given  a  trial  in  Scotland.  Mr. 
John  Anderson  of  the  North  Scotland  College  of  Agriculture, 
writing  in  the  Irish  Bee  Journal,  October,  1917,  says  of  them 
that  they  have  some  very  desirable  characteristics,  and  some 
that  are  inconvenient.  He  mentions  the  case  of  a  beekeeper 
who  depends  solely  on  honey  production  for  a  livelihood  (which 
is  unusual  in  Great  Britain),  who  increased  forty  colonies  to  four 
hundred  and  harvested  two-and-one-half  tons  of  honey  in  one 
season  without  feeding  any  sugar.  Mr.  Anderson  regards  the 
Punic  bee  as  worthy  of  more  attention  than  it  has  received. 

Egyptians. 

Bees  have  been  kept  in  a  primitive  way  for  centuries  in 
Egypt.  The  Egyptian  bees  resemble  Italians  in  color,  with  an 
additional  coat  of  white  hairs.  They  are  said  to  breed  purely 
and  not  be  inclined  to  mate  with  other  races.  They  are  some- 
what smaller  than  the  European  races,  and  build  somewhat 
smaller  cells  in  their  combs.  They  are  reported  to  be  cross 
and  not  easily  subdued  by  smoke.  Since  they  do  not  form  a 
winter  cluster,  they  are  not  fitted  to  withstand  severe  weather. 
They  are  said  to  rear  large  numbers  of  drones,  and  to  develop 
fertile  workers  in  abundance.  They  are  not  likely  to  prove  of 
any  value  in  America.  In  fact,  they  were  introduced  soon 


18  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

after   the   Civil  War,   but  either   perished   from   cold   or  were 
abandoned  in  favor  of  more  promising  races. 

Other  Races. 

There  are  numerous  other  races  in  Asia  and  Africa  which 
are  as  yet  but  little  known  in  this  country.  It  is  hardly  prob- 
able that  new  races  superior  to  those  already  introduced  will 
be  found.  The  native  Grecian  bee  is  said  to  resemble  the 
hybrids  so  common  in  this  country,  but  has  probably  not  been 
tried  here  as  yet. 


CHAPTER  II 
Life  Story  of  the  Bee. 

In  a  normal  colony  of  bees,  during  the  summer  season,  will 
be  found  one  queen,  several  thousand  workers  and  a  few  dozen 
drones.  If  the  bees  are  left  to  themselves  and  receive  no  atten- 
tion from  their  owner,  the  number  of  drones  is  greatly  increased, 
and  often  reaches  the  point  where  they  consume  what  might 
otherwise  be  stored  as  surplus  honey.  Since  there  are  but 
few  readers  of  a  book  of  this  nature  who  are  not  already  familiar 
with  the  life  of  the  honeybee,  it  would  seem,  at  first  thought, 
that  little  space  need  be  occupied  in  consideration  of  this  sub- 
ject. However,  the  volume  cannot  be  complete  without  some 
attention  to  the  life  history  of  the  insects,  especially  with  atten- 
tion to  those  points  with  special  bearing  on  the  subject  of 
queen  rearing. 

Since  the  life  of  the  colony  centers  in  the  queen,  she  becomes 
of  special  importance,  and  she  receives  attention  from  the 
workers  worthy  of  her  special  place.  Should  she  be  removed 
from  the  hive,  great  excitement  will  shortly  prevail  with  mani- 
festation of  serious  distress  on  the  part  of  the  inmates.  Unless 
she  be  promptly  returned,  the  bees  will  prepare  to  replace  her 
by  starting  numerous  queen  cells,  utilizing  the  newly  hatched 
larvae  for  the  purpose. 

Life  of  the  Queen. 

As  stated  elsewhere,  all  fertilized  eggs  laid  by  the  queen 
produce  female  offspring.  Whether  these  shall  develop  as 
queens  or  workers  is  determined  by  the  environment  in  which 
the  development  takes  place.  In  any  case  the  egg  hatches 
in  about  three  days.  Where  eggs  are  placed  in  queen  cells  it 
is  very  doubtful  whether  they  receive  any  different  treatment 

19 


20  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

before  hatching  than  do  the  eggs  in  ordinary  worker  cells.  It 
is  after  the  hatching  of  the  egg  that  the  embryo  queen  receives 
special  attention,  which  results  in  the  perfect  development  of 
her  sexual  organs.  The  larger  cell  in  which  she  finds  herself, 
together  with  a  plenteous  supply  of  the  rich  food  known  as 
royal  jelly,  makes  of  her  a  very  different  creature  than  of  her 
sister  in  the  worker  cell. 

The  queen  lacks  the  wax  secreting  organs  as  well  as  the 
pollen  baskets  of  the  worker.  Neither  has  she  the  same  highly 
developed  eyes  as  the  worker.  Her  period  of  development  is 
much  shorter,  while  her  body  is  larger  and  quite  different  in 
appearance.  Approximately  sixteen  days  are  necessary  for 
the  complete  development  of  the  queen  bee  from  the  time  of 
the  laying  of  the  egg.  Of  this,  three  days  are  necessary  for 
the  egg  to  hatch,  six  days  are  spent  in  the  larval  stage,  and  seven 
days  in  completing  the  final  transformation,  during  which  she 
is  sealed  up  in  the  cell.  Twelve  days  are  necessary  for  the 
last  stage  of  development  of  the  worker,  thus  requiring  twenty- 
one  days  for  the  entire  development. 

Apparently  the  queen  larvae  are  fed  for  the  first  thirty-six 
hours  in  very  similar  manner  to  the  workers.  After  that  time 
they  are  fed  far  more  of  the  royal  jelly  than  they  can  possibly 
consume,  being  left  to  float  in  the  rich  white  substance.  While 
the  worker  is  fed  on  pollen  and  honey  during  the  latter  part 
of  her  period  of  development,  the  queen  larvae  is  fed  the  royal 
jelly  during  the  entire  period  of, larval  growth. 

The  Drone. 

The  drones  are  male  bees  and,  apparently,  serve  no  other 
purpose  than  the  perpetuation  of  the  species.  Since  under 
normal  conditions  a  queen  bee  mates  but  once  in  her  lifetime, 
but  few  drones  are  needed  to  serve  the  purpose  for  which  they 
are  designed  by  nature.  In  a  state  of  nature,  where  colonies 
are  isolated  it  may  be  needful  that  a  large  number  of  drones  be 
reared  to  insure  that  the  young  queen  will  meet  one  when  she 
goes  forth  to  her  mating  flight.  Where  dozens  of  hives  /are 


QUEEN     REARING     IN     NATURE  21 

kept  together  in  a  single  apiary,  as  is  the  case  in  practice  of 
commerical  beekeeping,  the  beekeeper  may  keep  the  number 
down  to  the  minimum,  without  danger  that  a  sufficient  number 
will  not  be  present.  Hundreds  of  apiaries  are  unprofitable 
because  their  owners  fail  to  take  the  necessary  care  to  insure 
the  reduction  of  the  number  of  drones,  which  consume  the.  sur- 
plus of  the  colony  instead  of  adding  to  the  store. 

Except  in  the  case  of  the  queen  breeder  who  wishes  to 
propagate  large  numbers  of  males  from  choice  colonies  for  breed- 
ing purposes,  the  presence  of  an  over-abundance  of  drones  is  a 
serious  handicap  to  the  success  of  the  beekeeper.  The  use  of 
full  sheets  of  foundation  in  the  brood  frames  is  the  best  insur- 
ance against  the  raising  of  drones. 

The  cells  in  which  drones  are  reared  are  similar  in  appear- 
ance to  worker  cells,  except  that  they  are  larger  in  size.  They 
are  utilized  for  the  storage  of  honey  the  same  as  are  the  worker 
cells.  When  the  brood  is  developing  the  high  arched  cappings, 
like  rifle  bullets,  will  instantly  distinguish  them  from  the  smooth 
capping  of  worker  brood.  Twenty-five  days  is  necessary  for 
the  development  of  the  drone  from  the  time  the  egg  is  laid 
until  it  reaches  maturity.  Mating  of  honeybees  takes  place 
on  the  wing,  and  the  act  is  fatal  to  the  drone.  He  dies  almost 
instantly,  and  his  sexual  organs  are  torn  from  his  body  and 
borne  away  attached  to  the  body  of  the  queen.  After  all  the 
seminal  fluid  has  been  absorbed  by  the  queen,  the  parts  are 
removed,  apparently  by  the  workers  which  can  sometimes  be 
seen  pulling  at  them  after  the  return  of  the  queen. 

Queen  Rearing  in  Nature. 

Under  normal  conditions  the  bees  build  queen  cells  on 
two  occasions,  to  supersede  the  old  queen  or  in  preparation 
for  swarming.  Where  the  old  queen  shows  signs  of  failing, 
the  bees  will  often  build  only  one  or  two  cells.  When  the 
young  queen  emerges,  she  will  often  be  mated  and  begin  laying 
without  manifesting  any  antagonism  toward  the  old  queen. 
It 'thus  happens  that  the  beekeeper  frequently  will  find  two  lay- 


22 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


J**ga« 


Fig.    1.      Queen   cells   built    under   the   swarming   impulse. 

ing  queens  in  the  old  hive.  It  is  usually  but  a  short  time  until 
the  old  one  will  disappear.  As  soon  as  the  first  virgin  emerges 
she  will  at  once  seek  out  any  other  queen  cells  which  may  be 
present  and  destroy  the  occupants,  unless  prevented  frcm 
doing  so  by  the  workers,  as  is  the  case  when  there  is  preparation 
for  swarming. 

When  swarming  is  in  prospect  several  cells  are  usually 
built,  and  the  number  may  be  twenty  or  more  at  the  height 
of  the  season.  With  some  other  races  the  number  is  much 
greater  than  with  the  Italians. 

The  beekeeper  with  a  few  colonies  can  sometimes  supply 
his  needs  by  simply  cutting  out  the  surplus  cells,  built  in  antici- 
pation of  swarming,  and  using  them  to  replace  undesirable 
queens,  or  in  the  making  of  increase. 


CHAPTER  III 
Improvement  of  Stock  by  Breeding. 

It  is  highly  important  that  every  person  engaged  in  com- 
mercial queen  rearing,  should  make  a  careful  study  of  the  laws 
of  breeding,  and  make  a  conscientious  effort  to  improve  his 
stock.  Marvelous  results  have  come  from  careful  breeding 
of  live  stock  and  poultry,  and  even  more  striking  results  have 
attended  the  efforts  of  the  painstaking  plant  breeders.  Since 
bees  are  subject  to  the  same  laws  of  heredity,  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  cannot  be  likewise  improved  if  the  same  care  is  given 
to  the  selection  and  mating  of  queens,  that  is  given  to  other 
animals. 


Fig.  2.     A  large  average  production  is  only  secured  by  careful  attention 
to  the  selection  of  stock. 

23 


24  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

The  fact  that  there  is  great  difficulty  in  controlling  the  male 
parentage,  makes  the  problem  of  breeding  bees  a  more  serious 
one  than  breeders  of  animals  have  to  face.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  possibility  of  several  succeeding  generations  in  a  single 
season  makes  it  possible  to  secure  results  in  a  much  shorter 
period  of  time. 

The  beekeeper,  who  is  intent  on  bettering  his  stock,  finds 
it  much  simpler  to  replace  his  poor  stock  with  a  better  grade 
than  does  the  farmer  who  has  a  herd  of  scrub  cattle  or  sheep. 
Simply  replacing  the  queens  in  his  colonies  shortly  has  the  effect 
of  changing  the  entire  stock  in  the  apiary,  since  the  workers 
are  short  lived.  If  he  is  not  inclined  to  buy  enough  queens  to 
replace  the  poorer  ones  in  all  his  hives,  he  can  very  shortly  rear 
enough  on  his  own  account  to  do  so,  if  he  will  give  the  matter 
a  little  attention.  If  he  buys  even  one  good  queen,  he  can 
shortly  improve  the  entire  stock  of  an  apiary  of  one  hundred 
or  more  colonies.  To  do  this  he  should  rear  as  many  young 
queens  as  there  are  colonies  in  his  apiary,  and  use  them  to 
replace  the  old  and  inferior  queens.  If  he  does  this  early  in 
the  season,  he  need  give  little  thought  to  the  mating  of  his 
young  queens.  If  the  mother  from  which  he  rears  his  stock 
is  pure,  all  the  young  queens  will  be  pure.  To  be  sure,  most 
of  them  will  be  mated  with  inferior  drones,  but  it  is  a  well 
known  fact  that  it  is  only  the  female  offspring  that  are  affected 
by  the  mating  of  a  queen.  If  her  mother  is  purely  mated,  all 
her  drones  will  be  pure,  regardless  of  her  own  mating.  Within 
a  few  weeks  there  will  be  thousands  of  pure  drones,  the  off- 
spring of  the  young  queens  that  have  been  introduced.  The 
beekeeper  should  then  rear  a  second  lot  of  queens  from  a  pure 
mother  to  replace  all  the  mismated  ones  which  were  introduced 
early  in  the  season.  By  this  time,  most  of  the  drones  present 
will  be  pure,  and  the  second  lot  of  queens  will  mostly  be  purely 
mated.  It  is  thus  a  simple  matter  to  replace  the  entire  stock 
of  a  neighborhood  with  pure  bees  from  the  offspring  of  a  single 
pure  queen. 


DESIRABLE     TRAITS     IN     BREEDING     STOCK  25 

Desirable  Traits  in  Breeding  Stock. 

No  queen  should  be  used  as  a  breeder  unless  she  is  pro- 
lific, since  this  is  of  the  first  importance  in  determining  the 
amount  of  honey  stored.  However,  it  is  not  always  the  most 
prolific  colonies  which  store  the  most  honey.  Longevity  of 
the  bees  is  an  important  consideration,  and  quite  possibly  the 
difference  in  length  of  the  tongues  of  the  workers  may  have  an 
important  influence.  It  often  happens  that  in  a  poor  season 
a  single  colony  will  store  a  good  crop,  when  others  equally 
strong  will  get  but  little,  or  even  require  to  be  fed.  The  author 
had  one  such  colony  which  made  a  remarkable  showing  for  three 
successive  seasons.  The  difference  in  production  was  so  marked 
that  most  of  the  young  queens  reared  were  from  this  queen. 
A  measurement  of  the  length  of  the  tongues  of  her  workers 
showed  that  they  possessed  a  slightly  longer  tongue  than  others 
in  the  apiary,  or  even  other  apiaries  where  measurements  were 
made  in  comparison.  Increased  length  of  the  tongues  of  the 
workers  would  place  much  nectar  within  their  reach,  which 
would  otherwise  be  denied  them.  It  is  well  worth  while  to 
have  careful  measurements  of  tongues  of  all  colonies  which 
make  unusual  showing,  under  adverse  conditions. 

In  general,  the  breeder  selects  queens  for  breeding  from 
colonies  which  store  the  most  surplus,  with  little  enquiry  as 
to  the  particular  reason  therefor.  Since  honey  is  the  principal 
desideratum  of  the  beekeeper,  he  is  not  so  much  concerned  in 
the  reason  why  a  special  colony  stores  more,  as  he  is  in  finding 
the  particular  colony. 

Next  to  production,  gentleness  is  a  most  important  char- 
acteristic. It  is  very  disagreeable  to  have  bees  that  meet  one 
half  way  to  begin  the  day's  work,  and  follow  one  about  constant- 
ly. The  fear  of  stings  is  the  principal  objection  to  beekeeping 
on  the  part  of  many  people.  While  stings  can  largely  be  pre- 
vented by  suitable  protection  in  the  way  of  veils  and  gloves, 
it  is  far  better  to  select  gentle  stocks  for  breeding  purposes. 
Where  only  the  gentle  colonies  are  selected  for  breeding  stock, 
it  is  possible  to  very  largely  reduce  the  annoyance  of  stinging. 


26  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

It  would  seem  to  be  possible  to  select  gentle  colonies  which  are 
also  good  producers,  and,  at  the  same  time,  have  other  desirable 
characteristics. 

Color  should  be  a  secondary  consideration,  although  it  is 
desirable  to  have  bees  nicely  marked.  For  a  time,  so  much 
attention  was  paid  to  color  on  the  part  of  breeders  of  Italians, 
that  everything  else  was  sacrificed  in  order  to  get  yellow  bees. 
This  was  carried  to  such  an  extreme  that  a  very  general  prejudice 
has  grown  up  against  the  Goldens.  While  it  is  quite  true 
that  some  strains  of  the  Goldens  are  not  desirable,  being  neither 
hardy  nor  good  honey  gatherers,  there  are  strains  where  proper 
attention  has  been  given  to  other  points,  which  are  very  satis- 
factory. In  general,  the  Goldens  have  a  bad  reputation  for 
being  ugly  in  disposition,  yet  at  least  one  strain  of  Goldens 
is  very  gentle.  Very  much  depends  upon  the  queen  breeder, 
and  the  care  he  uses  in  selecting  his  breeding  stock.  Some  breed- 
ers go  so  far  as  never  to  use  a  queen  for  a  breeder,  unless  the 
colony  can  be  handled  under  normal  conditions  without  smoke. 

The  non-swarming  propensity  is  also  to  be  favored.  In 
many  localities  the  honeyflows  are  short,  and,  if  the  colony 
swarms  at  the  beginning  of  the  flow,  there  is  little  chance  of 
harvesting  a  good  crop.  Too  much  care  cannot  be  used  in 
selecting  the  colonies  to  use  for  breeders.  Much  more  attention 
is  given  to  selecting  the  queen  from  whose  offspring  the  young 
queens  are  to  be  reared,  than  is  given  to  the  parentage  of  the 
drones.  The  confession  must  be  made  that  few  breeders 
give  any  special  attention  to  this  point,  although  it  is  equally 
as  important  as  far  as  practical  results  are  concerned. 

Control  of  Drones. 

Since  the  queen  is  mated  on  the  wing,  and  there  is  always 
the  possibility  that  the  young  queen  will  meet  an  inferior  drone 
from  a  distance,  it  is  highly  important  that  a  queen  breeder 
go  to  a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  insure  that  all  bees  within  a  radius 
of  five  miles  of  his  breeding  yards  are  requeened  with  pure 
stock  of  the  race  which  he  is  breeding.  Unless  he  takes  this 


CONTROL    OF     DRONES 


27 


precaution,  there  will  be  much  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of 
his  customers  from  receiving  mismated  queens. 

If  a  breeder  is  so  fortunate  as  to  be  within  reach  of  a  suit- 
able place  to  establish  a  mating  station  where  no  other  bees 
are  within  reach,  he  can  do  much  to  improve  the  quality  of  his 
stock.  Under  such  circumstances,  he  can  select  his  drones 
with  the  same  care  that  he  selects  the  mother  of  his  queens. 
A  colony  combining  as  many  as  possible  of  the  desirable  char- 
acteristics can  be  carried  to  the  isolated  position  where  the  mat- 
ings  are  to  be  made  and  left  there.  A  few  have  undertaken 
to  rear  queens  on  islands  where  no  other  bees  are  present.  The 
broad  prairies  of  several  states  offer  similar  isolation. 


Fig.  3.      Combs  built  on  starters  only  or  without    foundation   contain  a 
large  percentage  of  drone  cells  and  result  in  unprofitable  colonies. 

Unfortunately,  however,  few  breeders  are  so  situated  that 
they  can  control  the  drones  thus  completely.  After  requeen- 
ing  all  the  bees  within  flying  distance  of  the  apiary,  the  next 
thing  is  to  select  the  best  colonies  as  drone  breeders  and  supply 
them  with  an  abundance  of  drone  comb.  This  insures  that 


28 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


large  numbers  of  drones  will  fly  from  these  colonies,  and  thus 
increase  the  chances  that  young  queens  will  meet  desirable 
mates.  Care  should  be  used  to  make  sure  that  the  combs 
in  the  brood  nests  of  other  colonies  than  the  breeders  contain 
as  little  drone  comb  as  possible,  and  thus  reduce  the  production 
of  drones  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum.  Traps  may  be  used 


Fig.   4.      Full  sheets  of  foundation   in   the   brood   frames  insure   worker 
combs  and  a  minimum  of  drone  production. 

also  to  catch  such  drones  as  appear  in  undesirable  colonies. 
Unless  the  breeder  is  willing  to  go  to  great  length  to  control 
his  breeding  stock  and  thus  give  his  customers  the  best  which 
it  is  possible  for  him  to  produce,  he  should  by  all  means  confine 
his  attention  to  the  production  of  honey  or  some  other  busi- 
ness. There  are  entirely  too  many  indifferent  queen  breeders 
for  the  good  of  the  industry. 

Mating  in  Confinement  a  Failure. 

Some  practical  method  of  absolute  control  of  mating  has 
long  been  sought.  At  the  University  of  Minnesota  Prof. 
Jager  succeeded  in  getting  one  queen  impregnated  artifically 


PARTHENOGENESIS  29 

and  for  a  time  it  was  hoped  that  enough  queens  could  be  mated 
in  this  way  for  use  in  breeding  experiments.  However,  after 
numerous  trials  on  the  part  of  Prof.  Jager,  C.  W.  Howard,  and 
L.  V.  France,  at  the  University,  no  further  successful  instances 
have  been  reported. 

The  A.  I.  Root  Company  tried  some  rather  elaborate  ex- 
periments in  getting  queens  mated  in  large  greenhouses,  but 
these  were  likewise  a  failure.  While  enthusiasts  have  claimed 
success  at  different  times  by  one  method  or  another,  their 
claims  have  generally  been  discredited,  and  up  to  the  present, 
there  «eems  little  prospect  of  artificial  control  of  the  mating. 
About  all  that  now  seems  possible,  is  to  select  isolated  situa- 
tions for  the  mating  stations,  or  to  limit  the  breeding  of  drones 
as  far  as  possible  in  undesirable  colonies,  and  encourage  it  in 
the  colonies  from  which  it  is  desirable  to  breed. 

Parthenogenesis. 

When  the  discovery  was  first  made  that  unimpregnated 
females  often  are  capable  of  producing  male  offspring,  the 
public  was  slow  to  accept  the  fact.  There  was  much  discussion 
of  the  subject  for  years  before  it  was  finally  accepted  as  a  settled 
fact,  rather  common  among  insects.  It  is  now  well  known 
among  beekeepers  that  queens  which  fail  to  mate  will  sometimes 
lay  a  considerable  number  of  eggs  which  will  hatch,  but  all 
will  be  drones.  In  the  same  manner  fertile  workers  produce 
drones  which  are  usually  smaller  in  size  and  inferior  in  appear- 
ance, but  some  very  careful  observers  are  of  the  opinion  that 
they  are  quite  capable  of  mating  in  the  normal  manner. 

Since  the  mating  of  a  queen  has  no  direct  effect  on  her 
male  offspring,  her  workers  may  be  hybrids,  and  her  drones  pure. 
It  is  hardly  within  the  scope  of  this  little  book  to  go  into  detail 
concerning  the  proof  of  such  well  established  facts  as  those 
above  stated.  These  may  be  found  in  detail  in  several  of  the 
old  text  books.  Those  who  are  interested  in  pursuing  the  sub- 
ject further  are  referred  to  Dadant's  revision  of  Langstroth 


30  PRACTICAL    QUEEN     REARING 

on  the  Honeybee,  where  a  full  account  of  the  various  experi- 
ments along  this  line  are  given. 

The  thing  that  we  are  concerned  with  just  now  is  the  prac- 
tical effect  that  the  facts  may  have  upon  the  problems  of  the 
queen  breeder,  and  these  we  have  set  out  as  briefly  as  possible 
in  the  foregoing  pages. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Equipment  for  Queen  Rearing. 

The  kind  and  amount  of  equipment  necessary  for  queen 
rearing  will  depend  to  a  great  extent  upon  conditions.  The 
beekeeper  who  wishes  to  rear  but  a  few  queens  for  use  in  re- 
queening  his  own  apiaries,  can  get  along  very  well  with  limited 
equipment.  The  commercial  queen  breeder,  who  expects  to 
send  out  several  thousand  queens  each  year,  will  do  well  to 
provide  a  liberal  amount  of  equipment,  for,  otherwise,  he  will 
be  hampered  and  unable  to  get  the  best  results.  An  effort  is 
made  here  to  describe  the  various  systems  of  management, 
and  the  reader  can  select  what  most  appeals  to  him.  In  general, 
the  simpler  the  system,  the  more  efficient  and  the  larger  the 
amount  of  work  which  can  be  accomplished  in  a  given  time. 
Several  different  methods  are  described  for  doing  the  same 
thing,  yet  it  is  manifestly  unwise  for  any  individual  to  provide 
himself  with  all  the  equipment  described,  or  to  undertake  the 
various  systems  outlined,  unless  it  be  for  the  purpose  of  experi- 
ment rather  than  for  practical  results.  Usually  it  is  best  to 
use  modifications  of  equipment  used  for  commercial  honey 
production  so  that  in  the  event  of  a  change  back  to  regular 
beekeeping  the  equipment  can  mostly  be  used,  or  sold  to  other 
beekeepers  in  case  of  giving  up  the  work.  Second  hand  queen- 
rearing  equipment  is  difficult  to  sell,  since  there  are  comparative- 
ly few  men  engaged  in  commercial  queen  rearing. 

Grafting  House. 

On  visiting  the  queen  breeders  of  the  south,  I  was  much 
impressed  with  a  grafting  house  in  common  use  in  the  queen 
rearing  apiaries  of  Alabama.  While  it  is  possible  to  make 
use  of  the  kitchen  or  other  warm  room  in  the  house,  or  to  do 
the  work  in  the  open  air  in  warm  weather,  the  little  building 

31 


32 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


Fig.  5.     Grafting  house  in  use  by  southern  queen  breeders 


shown  at  Figure  5  is  far  more  desirable.  As  will  be  seen  in 
the  picture,  the  building  is  made  of  matched  lumber  and  is 
very  tight.  A  seat  is  provided  for  the  operator,  and  in  front 
of  it  a  bench  or  table  running  across  the  building  and  about 
two  feet  wide.  This  provides  ample  room  for  combs,  tools, 
etc.,  and  one  can  work  in  comfort  and  at  leisure.  The  entire 
front  above  the  table  is  composed  of  window  sash,  thus  providing 
an  abundance  of  light.  Some  of  these  grafting  houses,  like  the 
one  shown,  are  also  provided  with  glass  in  the  roof  like  a  photog- 
rapher's studio.  It  is  well  to  provide  a  shutter  to  cover  the 
roof  in  extremely  hot  weather,  or  to  protect  the  glass  during 
storms.  A  shade  is  also  desirable  for  the  front,  to  shut  out  too 
much  sunlight  at  times.  A  room  four  by  six  feet  is  amply 
large  for  this  purpose,  and,  by  means  of  a  small  oil  stove,  it 
can  be  kept  warm  in  cool  weather.  This  is  important  to  pre- 
vent the  chilling  of  the  larvae  while  grafting.  Some  of  the 
more  extensive  queen  breeders  find  it  necessary  to  graft  cells 


MATING-HIVES  33 

every  day  during  the  season,  rain  or  shine,  and  during  the  rush 
days  of  midsummer  must  prepare  hundreds  of  cells.  Not  the 
least  of  the  advantages  of  this  building  is  the  protection  from 
robbers.  Where  it  is  necessary  for  the  operator  to  be  at  work 
for  several  hours  at  a  time,  this  little  building  in  the  center 
of  the  yard  is  a  great  time  and  labor  saver,  as  well  as  adding 
much  to  the  convenience  and  comfort  of  the  operator.  It  merits 
more  general  use.  While  the  one  shown  in  the  picture  admits 
more  light  than  is  necessary  on  bright  days,  the  extra  glass 
space  will  be  much  appreciated  in  dark  and  cloudy  weather. 

Mating-Hives.     A 

The  honey  producer  who  rears  queens  only  for  the  purpose 
of  improving  his  stock  or  requeening  his  apiaries,  seldom  both- 
ers much  about  mating-hives.  When  he  has  a  lot  of  sealed 
cells  ready  for  use,  he  simply  kills  off  the  old  queens  to  be 
replaced  and  about  twenty-four  hours  later  gives  each  of  the 
colonies  a  sealed  cell.  In  this  way  he  avoids  the  bother  of 
introducing  queens,  for  the  young  queen  will  emerge  in  the 
hive  where  she  is  expected  to  remain.  From  there  she  will 
take  her  mating  flight,  and,  the  only  further  concern  necessary 
on  the  part  of  the  beekeeper,  is  to  take  care  to  replace  any 
queens  that  are  lost  on  their  nuptial  flight  or  that  fail  to  emerge 
properly. 

The  commercial  queen  breeder  will  require  a  large  number 
of  nuclei  or  small  colonies  to  care  for  surplus  queens,  until 
they  are  mated  and  ready  to  be  mailed  to  customers.  There 
is  a  large  variety  of  hives  of  various  sizes  used  for  this  purpose. 
Where  queen  breeding  is  the  prime  object,  the  tendency  is  to 
use  as  small  hives  and  as  few  bees  as  possible,  so  that  the  largest 
possible  number  of  queens  may  be  reared  with  the  bees  and 
equipment  available.  However,  many  of  the  most  success- 
ful queen  breeders  find  serious  objections  to  baby  nuclei  and 
small  mating  boxes,  and  advocate  nothing  but  standard  frames 
for  mating-hives. 


34 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


The  Rauchfuss  Mating  Boxes. 


Fig.  6. 
Rauchfuss    Mating    Box. 


This  is  perhaps  the  smallest  mat- 
ing box  ever  devised  which  has  been 
used  successfully.  Beginners  or  those 
with  limited  experience,  are  quite 
likely  to  have  much  difficulty  from 
the  bees  swarming  out  to  accompany 
the  queen  on  her  mating  flight  with 
any  small  nucleus.  Even  the  most 
expert  are  never  able  to  overcome 
this  difficulty  entirely. 

The  Rauchfuss  nucleus  consists 
of  a  small  box  with  removable  front, 

holding  three  4//4x4/4  comb-honey  sections,  Figure  6.  The 
entrance  is  by  means  of  a  small  round  hole  in  the  front,  which 
can  be  closed  entirely,  when  moving  them,  by  simply  turning 
a  small  button.  As  devised  by  the  inventor,  one  section  of 
sealed  honey  is  used,  and  sealed  brood  is  removed  from  a  strong 
colony  and  cut  into  squares  of  the  right  size  to  fill  one  of  the 
remaining  sections.  The  presence  of  the  brood  will  in  many 
cases  prevent  the  bees  from  absconding  when  the  queen  takes 
her  flight  When  used  without  the  brood,  there  will  be  a  larger 
percentage  of  loss  from  absconding.  A  cupful  of  young  bees 
taken  from  a  strong  colony  is  sufficient  to  stock  the  box,  when  a 
virgin  queen  from  a  nursery  cage  is  run  in  through  the  entrance 
hole.  After  the  box  is  stocked  and  the  young  queen  run  in, 
the  entrance  is  stopped.  When  all  boxes  to  be  stocked  at  one 
time  are  ready,  all  are  carried  to  a  point  some  distance  from 
the  apiary  and  tied  in  trees,  set  on  some  convenient  object,  or 
otherwise  placed  until  the  queens  shall  be  mated.  Of  course 
the  entrance  should  be  opened  as  soon  as  conditions  are  favor- 
able after  reaching  the  destination.  It  will  be  necessary  to 
remove  the  queens  from  these  diminutive  hives  soon  after  they 
begin  to  lay.  Should  it  be  inconvenient  to  do  so  at  once, 
the  box  is  provided  with  a  piece  of  queen  excluding  zinc  which 


BABY     NUCLEI 


35 


can  be  turned  over  the  entrance  hole,  thus  preventing  the  queen 
from  escaping,  while  permitting  the  bees  to  go  afield. 

The  great  advantage  of  this  mating  box  is  the  small  first 
cost,  and  the  small  number  of  bees  necessary  to  stock  the  nucleus. 
They  are  listed  at  about  forty  cents  each  in  lots  of  ten. 

Baby  Nuclei. 

The  Root  baby  nucleus  which  is  quite  generally  used  is  a 
small  double  hive,  each  side  containing  two  frames  5^x8  inches 
in  size.  Three  of  these  little  frames  will  just  fill  a  standard 
Langstroth  frame,  and  to  get  combs  built  in  them  it  is  neces- 
sary to  put  them  in  Langstroth  frames,  and  insert  them  in  strong 
colonies  of  bees.  Some  cut  up  combs  and  fit  them  into  the  little 
frames.  Entrances  to  the  two  compartments  are  at  opposite 


Fig.    7.     A    baby    nucleus   at    the    Minnesota    University    queen-rearing 

station. 


36 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


ends  of  the  box.  About  a  half  a  pint  of  bees  is  used  to  stock 
each  compartment.  This,  in  effect,  is  very  similar  to  the 
Rauchfuss  mating  box,  excepting  that  it  is  necessary  to  go  to 
more  trouble  to  get  combs  built  especially  for  these  nuclei. 
There  is  the  same  trouble  from  absconding,  and  the  same  danger 
of  being  robbed  by  strong  colonies  if  left  within  reach.  During 
a  good  'honey  flow  when  all  conditions  are  favorable,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  get  a  large  number  of  queens  mated  in  these  little  hives 
with  a  minimum  of  cost  in  bees,  but  during  a  dearth  when  it 
becomes  necessary  to  feed  to  keep  any  kind  of  nucleus  from  going 
to  pieces,  they  are  likely  to  prove  the  source  of  much  annoyance. 
See  Figure  7. 

Small  Hives. 


At  Figure  8,  we  show  some  small  hives  formerly  popular 
with  queen  breeders,  but  which  have  almost  gone  out  of  use. 
As  will  be  seen  in  the  picture,  one  is  single  and  the  other  is 
double.  The  double  one  has  entrances  opening  in  opposite 
directions  to  avoid  danger  of  the  queen  entering  the  wrong  com- 
partment. 


Fig.  8.     Small  mating  hives  in  Strong  queen  yard.     This  type  of  hive  was 

once  quite  generally  used  but  is  now  going  out  of  use. 

[From  Productive  Beekeeping.] 


SMALL     HIVES 


37 


These  little  hives  hold  three,  and  sometimes  four,  small 
frames.  They  are  large  enough  to  hold  a  nice  little  cluster 
of  bees,  and  once  established  they  can  sustain  themselves 
very  nicely  under  favorable  conditions.  Mr.  J.  L.  Strong,  form- 
erly extensively  engaged  in  queen  rearing  in  Iowa,  used  these 
mating  hives  for  about  twenty-five  years'  with  satisfaction. 
However,  since  the  frame  is  an  odd  size,  it  is  necessary  either  to 
cut  up  combs  and  fit  into  them,  or  get  them  built  in  the  nucleus, 
so  there  is  sometimes  difficulty  in  getting  them  properly  fitted 
out  to  begin  with.  There  is  really  nothing  to  be  said  for  them 
in  preference  to  a  standard  hive  divided  into  two  or  three  com- 
partments, and  the  latter  can  be  used  for  any  other  purpose 
as  well. 

A  few  queen  breeders  use  a  shallow  nucleus  which  is  of  the 
same  length  as  the  standard  hive.  In  this  they  use  shallow 
extracting  frames.  Although  the  frames  are  of  the  same  size 


Fig.  9.      Mating  hives  using  shallow  extracting  frames.      Achord  queen 
yards  in  Alabama. 


38 


PRACTICAL    QUEEN     REARING 


as  those  used  in  the  apiary,  the  top,  bottom  and  body  must  be 
made  especially.  Nuclei  of  this  type  as  used  by  W.  D.  Achord, 
of  Alabama,  are  shown  at  Figure  9.  Instead  of  the  usual  hive 
record,  short  pieces  of  different  colors  are  placed  at  the  front 
end  of  the  cover.  The  position  of  these  pieces,  which  .can  be 
moved  to  any  position  at  will,  indicate  the  conditions  within 
the  hive. 

Divided  Standard  Hives. 


By  far  the  greater 
number  of  queen  breeders 
use  the  standard  Langs- 
troth  hive,  divided  into 
two  or  more  parts.  J.  M. 
Davis,  of  Tennessee,  di- 
vides the  ordinary  hive 
into  four  parts.  This 
makes  use  of  standard 
hive  bodies,  tops  and  bot- 
toms, but  requires  a  spe- 
cial frame  as  shown  in 
Figure  10.  The  two  di- 
vision boards  that  are  run- 
ning lengthwise  are  easily 
removed,  thus  leaving  the 
hive  in  only  two  parts. 
In  this  way  it  is  possible 
to  unite  two  of  the  clus- 
ters at  the  close  of  the 
season,  and  leave  them 
strong  enough  for  winter- 
ing in  that  mild  climate. 
There  is  an  entrance  at 
each  of  the  four  corners, 
each  facing  in  a  different 

Fig      10.       Langstroth      hive    body      direction       The  four  corn- 
adapted   for  four-compartment    mating 
hive,  used  by  J.  M.  Davis  of  Tennessee,     partments  are  lettered  A, 


DIVIDED     STANDARD     HIVES 


39 


B,  C,  and  D.  In  opening  the  hive  he  makes  it  a  point  always 
to  begin  at  A  and  examine  each  division  in  regular  order  to 
avoid  overlooking  any  one  of  them. 

At  the  apiary  of  Prof.  Francis  Jager  where  the  queen  breed- 
ing work  of  the  State  of  Minnesota  is  carried  on,  an  eight  frame 
hive  is  divided  into  three  parts,  each  part  taking  two  standard 
frames.  There  is  one  entrance  at  each  side,  and  one  at  an  end. 
All  that  is  necessary  to  make  an  eight  frame  hive  into  three 
nuclei,  is  to  have  two  tight  fitting  division  boards  which  fit 
into  sawed  slots  at  the  ends.  These  must  reach  to  the  bottom 
to  prevent  the  mixing  of  bees  or  the  queens  from  passing  from 
one  compartment  to  another.  It  is  necessary  of  course  to  fit 
the  bottom  board  for  the  special  purpose  with  entrance  openings 
in  the  proper  place.  Our  illustration  (Figure  11)  shows  a  small 
cover  just  the  right  size  to  cover  one  of  the  three  compartments. 


Fig.  11.   Eight-frame  hive  divided  into  three  parts;  each  with  two  stand- 
ard frames,  at  the  Jager  apiary. 


40 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


This  is  placed  over  the  middle  division  when  the  regular  cover 
is  removed,  to  prevent  the  mixing  of  bees  while  the  hive  is  open. 


Fig.  12.     Ten-frame  hive  divided  into  two  parts  as  used  for  mating  hives 
by  Ben  G,  Davis  of  Tennessee. 


FEEDERS  41 

Both  the  eight  and  ten  frame  hives  arranged  in  this  manner  are 
in  general  use. 

Ben  G.  Davis,  of  Tennessee,  the  well  known  breeder  of 
Goldens,  is  an  advocate  of  strong  nuclei  which  are  capable  of 
passing  through  a  dearth  or  other  unfavorable  season  without 
much  fussing  on  the  part  of  the  queen  breeder.  With  five  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  weaklings,  the  queen  breeder  finds  it  a  very 
difficult  matter  to  carry  on  operations  under  adverse  conditions. 
Mr.  Davis  feels  that  the  extra  cost  of  these  stronger  nuclei  is 
cheap  insurance  against  a  poor  season.  Figure  12  shows  his 
big  nuclei,  where  a  ten  frame  hive  is  divided  into  two  parts, 
each  with  four  frames.  These  nuclei  are  strong  enough  to  store 
sufficient  honey  to  winter  them  successfully  under  normal 
conditions,  and  the  time  saved  from  fussing  with  daily  feeding 
and  constant  attention  more  than  repays  the  larger  investment. 
Then  there  is  no  trouble  whatever  in  stocking  nuclei  formed  in 
this  manner.  All  that  is  necessary  in  order  to  increase  the 
number,  is  to  remove  one  or  two  frames  of  emerging  brood  from 
a  strong  colony,  for  each  nucleus,  give  them  a  queen  or  ripe 
cell  and  let  them  build  up  slowly  during  the  summer,  as  one 
young  queen  after  another  is  mated  and  permitted  to  begin 
laying. 

Feeders. 

Some  kind  of  feeder  will  be  necessary  to  stimulate  the  cell- 
starting  and  cell-building  colonies,  at  such  times  as  no  honey 
is  coming  from  the  field.  If  small  nuclei  are  used,  it  will  often 
become  necessary  to  feed  them  as  well.  Since  nearly  every 
apiary  is  provided  with  feeders  of  one  kind  or  another,  it  hardly 
seems  important  in  a  work  like  this  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
of  the  different  types  of  feeders  in  the  market,  and  the  special 
merits  of  each.  The  Doolittle  division  board  feeder  is  very 
popular  among  queen  breeders,  as  is  also  the  Alexander  bottom 
feeder.  However,  practically  every  type  of  feeder  now  in  the 
market  is  in  use  somewhere  in  a  queen-breeding  apiary.  The 
IV-nn  Company,  of  Mississippi,  use  a  Mason  jar  with  small 
holes  in  the  metal  cover.  This  is  inverted  in  a  round  hole  in 


42 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


the  center  of  the  cover  of  the  hive,  Figure  13.  In  passing  through 
the  yard,  one  can  see  at  a  glance  the  exact  amount  of  feed  avail- 
able to  every  colony.  The  feeders  are  easily  filled  and  replaced 
without  opening  the  hives,  and,  at  the  same  time,  place  the  feed 
above  the  cluster. 

Nursery  Cages. 

During  much  of  the  season  a  queen  breeder  with  an  active 
trade  will  have  no  use  for  nursery  cages.  Each  cell  will  be  placed 
in  a  nucleus  a  day  or  two  before  time  for  the  queen  to  emerge, 
and  there  she  will  remain  until  removed  to  fill  an  order  to  re- 
queen  a  colony.  However,  it  often  happens  that  a  batch  of 
cells  will  mature  when  no  queenless  nuclei  are  ready  to  receive 
them,  and  it  becomes  necessary  to  care  for  them  otherwise 


Fig.   13.      Feeding  with  Mason  jars  set  in  the  top  of  hives  at  the  Penn 

Company  yards, 


NURSERY    CAGES  43 

for  a  day  or  two,  until  room  can  be  made  for  them.  Then 
some  breeders  make  a  practice  of  allowing  the  young  queens  to 
emerge  in  the  nursery  cages  before  placing  them  in  the  nuclei. 
In  this  case,  cages  will  be  necessary. 

There  is  a  considerable  percentage  of  loss  when  queens 
are  permitted  to  remain  several  days  in  the  cage.  Some  will 
creep  back  into  the  cell  and  be  unable  to  back  out  again,  while 
others  will  die  from  other  causes.  Sometimes,  the  bees  will 
feed  them  through  the  wire  cloth,  but  this  is  not  to  be  depended 
upon,  and  the  cages  must  be  stocked  with  candy  to  insure 
plenty  of  feed  within  reach.  Doolittle  advocates  smearing  a 
drop  of  honey  on  the  small  end  of  the  cell  when  placing  it  in 
the  nursery,  in  order  to  provide  the  queen  with  her  first  meal 
as  soon  as  she  cuts  the  capping  of  the  cell.  Candy  is  also  pro- 
vided to  furnish  food  in  sufficient  quantity  during  the  period 
that  she  is  confined  in  the  cage.  The  cages  must  be  kept  warm, 
of  course,  while  the  cells  are  incubating,  and  for  this  purpose 
they  are  usually  left  hanging  in  the  hive  with  a  strong  colony. 
However,  the  bees  will  not  keep  the  cells  in  cages  sufficiently 
warm  after  the  weather  gets  cool  in  late  fall,  nor  in  early  spring. 
At  such  times  it  becomes  necessary  to  provide  a  nursery  heated 
with  a  lamp  or  other  artificial  heat,  in  which  the  frames  of 
nursery  cages  can  be  hung. 

Some  queen  breeders  utilize  an  ordinary  poultry  incubator 
for  this  purpose,  maintaining  it  at  the  normal  hive  temper- 
ature. 

E.  B.  Ault  of  Texas  has  fitted  up  an  outdoor  cellar  with 
artificial  heat  for  the  purpose  of  incubating  his  sealed  queen 
cells. 


44 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


Fig.  14. 
The    Alley    nursery    cage. 


Alley  Nursery  Cage. 


The  Alley  cage,  Figure  14,  is  the 
most  popular  cage,  although  this  may 
be  because  it  has  been  so  long  on  the 
market.  A  nursery  frame  is  offered 
by  supply  houses  which  holds  twenty- 
four  of  these  cages.  The  larger 
hole  is  just  the  right  size  to  take 
a  cell  built  on  a  cell  block.  The 
block  makes  an  effective  stopper  for 
the  hole  after  the  emergence  of  the 
young  queen.  Candy  for  provision 
is  placed  in  the  smaller  hole. 


Rauchfuss  Nursery  Cage. 

The  Rauchfuss  cage  has  not  been 
long  in  the  market,  but  bids  fair  to  come 
into  general  use.  Figure  15  shows  the 
cage  and  Figure  16  the  frame  to  hold 
about  three  dozen  of  them.  This  cage 
Fig.  15.  The  Rauch-  can  be  used  for  any  purpose  for  which  a 

fuss  combined  nursery  cage  js  needed  about  the  apiary.  The 
and  introducing  cage.  ° 

hole  at  one  end  is  large  enough  to  take  a 

ripe  cell,  while  the  candy  at  the  other  end  can  be  eaten  away, 
thus  releasing  the  queen,  and  making  it  a  desirable  introducing 
cage. 

Shipping  Cages. 

The  Benton  mailing  cage  has  come  into  almost  universal 
use  among  queen  breeders.  This  is  used  as  a  combined  mailing 
and  introducing  cage.  It  has  been  found  that  a  small  cage  is 
desirable  for  sending  queens  in  the  mail,  as  there  is  less  danger 
of  injury  when  thrown  about  in  the  mailsacks  than  in  a  larger 
cage  where  there  is  more  room  to  be  bumped  about.  When 
larger  cages  are  used,  where  the  queen  and  her  escort  must 


SHIPPING     CAGES 


45 


Fig.  16.     Frame  for  holding  Rauchfuss  nursery  cages. 

travel  long  distances,  as  for  export  trade,  a  correspondingly 
larger  number  of  bees  are  enclosed,  thus  saving  each  other  from 
the  shocks  incident  to  travel  through  the  mails. 

Minor  Equipment,  such  as  cell  blocks,  cell  protectors, 
etc.,  will  be  taken  up  in  connection  with  the  chapters  relating 
to  their  use. 


CHAPTER  V 
Early  Methods  of  Queen  Rearing. 

Prior  to  the  invention  of  the  movable  frame  hive  little 
progress  was  made  in  the  development  of  beekeeping.  Com- 
mercial queen  rearing  as  now  practiced  has  been  developed 
within  the  memory  of  our  older  beekeepers.  As  soon  as  his 
invention  of  the  loose  frames  made  the  control  of  conditions 
within  the  hive  possible,  Langstroth  began  to  experiment  in 
the  hope  of  being  able  to  control  natural  swarming,  and  make 
necessary  increase  at  his  convenience.  At  that  time  the  only 
known  method  of  securing  additional  queens,  was  by  means 
of  depriving  a  colony  of  the  queen.  The  queenless  colony  in 
its  anxiety  to  make  sure  of  replacing  the  lost  mother,  would 
usually  prepare  a  number  of  cells  and  rear  several  more  queens 
than  needed.  The  ripe  cells  were  taken  from  the  hive  before 
the  emergence  of  the  first  queen,  and  given  to  nuclei  or  queen- 
less  colonies.  As  compared  to  present  wholesale  methods,  this 
plan  was  crude  and  unsatisfactory.  However,  a  careful  bee- 
keeper could  by  this  means  make  considerable  increase  artificial- 
ly, or  provide  young  queens  to  replace  undesirable  ones. 

In  the  first  edition  of  his  "Hive  and  the  Honey-Bee," 
Langstroth  describes  his  method  of  queen  rearing  by  means  of 
one  queen  in  three  hives.  Two  hives  were  deprived  of  their 
queens  which  were  used  to  make  artificial  swarms  or  nuclei, 
at  intervals  of  a  week.  When  the  first  hive  had  been  queenless 
for  nine  days,  there  were  several  sealed  queen  cells,  which  were 
counted,  on  the  tenth  day  these  were  removed  for  use  and  a 
laying  queen  was  taken  from  a  third  hive,  C,  and  given  to  the 
first  hive  where  she  was  permitted  to  lay  a  few  days.  In  the 
meantime  the  second  hive  had  been  made  queenless  and  had 
built  cells.  When  these  in  turn  were  removed  the  queen  which 
had  been  taken  from  the  third  hive,  C,  and  placed  in  the  first 

47 


48  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

hive,  was  taken  from  the  first  hive  and  passed  on  to  the  second. 
The  hive  C,  from  which  the  queen  had  been  taken,  soon  had 
cells  ready  to  remove  and  she  was  replaced  in  her  original  home. 
Here  she  was  permitted  to  stay  for  only  a  short  time  when  she 
was  started  a  second  time  around  the  circle.  By  keeping  the 
queen  in  each  hive  for  a  period  of  a  week  at  one  time,  sufficient 
eggs  were  laid  to  prevent  the  rapid  depletion  of  the  stock  while 
providing  a  sufficient  number  of  eggs  and  young  larvae,  to  insure 
queen  cells  when  she  was  again  removed.  By  this  simple  plan 
he  was  able  to  get  a  large  number  of  young  queens  and  at  the 
same  time  preserve  the  parent  colonies.  Whenever  possible 
the  queen  cells  were  removed  intact  by  taking  out  the  frame  on 
which  they  were  formed  and  exchanging  it  for  another  from  the 
colony,  to  which  it  was  desired  to  give  the  cell.  At  times,  how- 
ever, he  found  it  necessary  to  cut  the  cells  from  the  combs, 
since  several  cells  were  often  on  the  same  comb. 

For  a  number  of  years  no  better  method  was  developed, 
and  while  numerous  variations  of  the  Langstroth  plan  were 
described  in  the  beekeeping  literature  of  the  time,  the  only  way 
known  to  secure  additional  queens  was  by  means  of  making  a 
colony  queenless  and  trusting  them  to  build  cells  in  a  natural 
manner.  In  an.  early  edition  of  his  "Manual  of  the  Apiary," 
Cook  recommended  that  the  edges  of  the  combs  containing 
eggs  or  young  larvae,  be  trimmed,  or  holes  cut,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  known  in  later  years  as  the  Miller  plan. 

Quinby's  Method. 

Quinby  practiced  rearing  queens  by  forming  small  nuclei 
of  about  a  quart  of  bees  and  giving  them  small  pieces  of  comb 
containing  larvae  not  less  than  two,  or  more  than  three  days 
old.  A  hole  was  cut  in  a  brood  comb  sufficient  to  insert  a  piece 
of  comb  containing  the  larvae.  This  is  described  to  be  one  inch 
deep  and  three  inches  long.  No  other  brood  was  permitted 
in  the  hive.  Concerning  this  plan  he  says:  "I  want  new 
comb  for  the  brood,  as  cells  can  be  worked  over  out  of  that, 
better  than  from  old  and  tough.  New  comb  must  be  carefullv 


THE     ALLEY     PLAN  49 

handled.  If  none  but  old,  tough  comb  is  to  be  had,  cut  the  cells 
down  to  one-fourth  inch  in  depth.  The  knife  must  be  sharp 
to  leave  it  smooth  and  not  tear  it." 

While  practicing  the  method  just  described,  he  said  in  his 
book,  that  in  many  respects  he  preferred  to  rear  queens  in  a 
strong  colony  made  queenless. 

The  Alley  Plan. 

Henry  Alley  made  a  distinct  advance  when  he  developed  his 
plan  of  using  strips  of  worker  comb  containing  eggs  or  just 
hatched  larvae.  Before  describing  his  method  of  preparing  these 
cells,  it  is  best,  perhaps,  to  outline  his  plan  of  preparing  the 
bees  to  receive  them  so  that  his  whole  method  may  be  clearly 
explained. 

He  recommended  taking  the  best  colony  in  the  apiary  to  use 
as  cell  builders.  After  the  queen  had  been  found,  her  bees  were 
brushed  into  a  "swarm  box,"  which  has  a  wire-cloth  top  and 
bottom,  to  admit  the  air.  "The  bees  should  be  kept  queenless 
for  at  least  ten  hours  in  the  swarming  box,  else  the  eggs  given 
them  for  cell  building  will  be  destroyed.  Soon  after  being  put 
into  it  they  will  miss  their  queen  and  keep  up  an  uproar  until 
released." 

The  bees  in  the  swarm  box  were  kept  in  a  cool  room  or  cellar 
and  fed  a  pint  of  syrup.  In  the  meantime  the  old  hive  has  been 
removed  and  a  queen  rearing  hive  placed  on  the  old  stand.  At 
night  the  bees  are  returned  to  the  new  hive  on  the  old  stand  and 
given  cell  building  material  provided  as  follows: 

In  the  center  of  the  hive  containing  the  breeding  queen  an 
empty  comb  has  been  placed  four  days  previously.  This  will 
now  contain  eggs  and  hatching  larvae.  The  bees  are  carefully 
brushed  off  this  comb  and  it  is  taken  into  a  warm  room  to  be 
cut  into  strips.  With  a  thin,  sharp  knife,  which  must  be  kept 
warm  to  avoid  bruising  the  comb,  the  comb  is  cut  through  every 
alternate  row  of  cells.  After  the  comb  has  been  cut  up  into 
strips,  these  are  laid  flat  on  a  table  and  the  cells  on  one  side  of 
the  midrib  are  cut  down  to  within  a  quarter  of  an  inch  of  the 


50 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


Fig.  17.     Comb  cut  down  for  cell  building,  by  Alley. 

septum  as  shown  in  Fig.   17.     Every  alternate  egg  or  larva  is 
crushed  by  means  of  a  match  pressed  gently  into  the  shallow 


Fig.    18.     Every  alternate  egg  is  crushed  with  a 
match  twirled   between  the  fingers. 

cells  and  twirled  between  the  thumb  and  finger,  Fig.  18.  This 
gives  room  enough  for  a  queen  cell  over  each  remaining  one, 
Fig.  19.  A  frame  containing  a  brood  comb  with  about  one-half 


Fig.  19.     Queen-cells  by  the  Alley  plan.    [From  Productive  Beekeeping.] 

cut  away  is  used  as  a  foundation  for  the  prepared  strip.     The 
uncut  side  of  the  strip  is  dipped  into  melted  beeswax  and  at  once 


THE     ALLEY     PLAN  51 

pressed  against  the  lower  edge  of  the  comb.  It  is  necessary  to 
use  care  to  have  this  melted  wax  of  just  the  right  temperature 
so  as  not  to  destroy  the  eggs  by  overheating  them,  while  at  the 
same  time  warm  enough  to  run  readily  and  stick  to  the  dry 
comb.  The  shallow  cells,  those  which  have  been  trimmed,  open 
downward  in  the  same  position  as  a  natural  queen  cell  built 
under  the  swarming  impulse. 

The  care  of  the  cell  building  colonies,  emerging  queens, 
etc.,  is  the  same  by  this  method  as  any  other  and  will  be  found 
in  detail  further  on.  See  page  63.  Aside  from  the  strips  of 
prepared  cells,  no  brood  will  be  given  to  the  queenless  bees, 
and  they  will  concentrate  their  attention  on  building  cells, 
with  the  result  that  a  considerable  number  of  fine  cells  will  be 
secured. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Present  Day  Methods. 

While  most  queen  breeders  of  the  present  day  use  some 
modification  of  the  Doolittle  cell  cup  method,  a  few  still  cling 
to  the  Alley  plan  or  some  modification  of  it.  J.  L.  Strong,  a 
well  known  queen  breeder  of  Iowa,  who  has  but  recently  re- 
tired, continued  to  follow  the  Alley  plan  in  detail  until  the  end 
of  his  queen  breeding  career.  Mr.  Strong  was  a  beekeeper 
for  half  a  century  and  engaged  in  commercial  queen  rearing 
for  about  twenty-five  years.  The  Davis  queen  yards  in  Ten- 
nessee use  a  modification  of  this  method,  using  drone  comb 
instead  of  worker  comb.  This  necessitates  grafting,  as  with 
artificial  cell  cups. 

The  Davis  Method  of  Using  Drone  Comb. 

At  the  Davis  yards  in  Tennessee,  a  modification  of  the 
Alley  plan  is  used.  Instead  of  cutting  down  worker  comb  in 
which  eggs  have  already  been  laid  as  in  the  Alley  plan,  they 
cut  down  fresh  drone  comb  wherever  available.  This  neces- 
sitates grafting  of  larvae  the  same  as  in  the  cell  cup  method 
later  to  be  described.  Strips  of  new  drone  comb  are  cut  down, 
as  already  described,  and  fastened  to  wood  supports.  Royal 
jelly  is  taken  from  queen  cells  the  same  as  in  the  cell  cup  method, 
and  a  small  quantity  placed  in  each  drone  cell  which  it  is  desired 
to  use.  Worker  larvae  from  the  hive  occupied  by  the  breeding 
queen  are  then  carefully  lifted  from  their  cells  by  means  of  a 
toothpick  or  grafting  tool,  and  placed  in  these  prepared  cells. 
Every  third  or  fourth  drone  cell  can  be  used  in  this  manner. 
These  cells  are  given  to  strong  colonies  to  be  built,  the  same 
as  by  the  Alley  plan  or  cell  cup  plan. 


53 


54 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


Fig.  20.  A  batch  of  finished  cells 
grafted  with  drone  comb  at  the  Davis 
apiaries. 


Mr.    J.    M.    Davis 

has  tried  about  all  the 
systems  so  far  given  to 
the  public  during  the 
nearly  fifty  years  that 
he  has  been  engaged  in 
queen  breeding.  After 
giving  the  Doolittle  cell 
cup  method  an  extended 
trial,  he  abandoned  it 
in  favor  of  the  plan 
above  described.  By 
this  plan,  it  is  possible 
to  get  large  batches  of 
fine  cells,  although  it 
becomes  necessary  to 
have  combs  drawn 
above  excluders  and 
without  foundation,  in 
order  to  get  a  sufficient 
supply  of  drone  comb 
for  the  thousands  of 
cells  which  are  built  in 
a  yard,  doing  an  exten- 


Fig.  21.     Cutting  away  cells  built  on  drone  comb. 


NATURAL  BUILT  CELLS  BY  THE  MILLER  PLAN         55 

sive  business.  Figure  20  shows  one  batch  of  37  finished  cells 
by  this  method.  Cells  built  by  this  plan  are  not  as  convenient 
to  remove  and  place  in  nursery  cages  or  mating  nuclei  as  those 
having  the  wood  base.  These  must  be  cut  apart  as  in  Figure 
21.  This  also  necessitates  some  special  means  of  carrying  them 
about  to  avoid  injury  to  the  tender  occupants.  For  this  purpose 
a  block  with  24  holes  bored  in  it  is  used  at  the  Davis  apiaries. 
As  the  cells  are  cut  from  the  frame  they  are  placed  in  the  block, 
in  the  natural  position.  The  block  is  easily  carried  from  hive 
to  hive  while  placing  the  ripe  cells.  Figure  22. 


&#m$m>  -m? 
4&  H& 


Fig.   22.     The  cell  block  enables  the  queen  breeder  to  carry  a  batch  of 
cells  right  side  up  without  danger  of  injury. 

Natural  Built  Cells  by  the  Miller  Flan. 

What  has,  of  late,  been  known  as  the  Miller  method  of 
rearing  queens,  was  probably  not  entirely  original  with  him, 
but  has  been  used  in  more  or  less  the  same  form  for  many 
years.  However,  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller  has  given  the  method  new 
prominence,  and  brought  it  forcibly  to  public  attention.  In 
offering  it,  he  did  not  even  claim  to  be  putting  forth  anything 
entirely  new,  but  presented  it  as  a  very  satisfactory  method 


56  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

for  the  honey  producer  to  provide  himself  with  a  limited  number 
of  queens  with  little  trouble.  The  plan  was  so  simple  that  it 
made  an  instant  appeal,  and  has  been  widely  published  and 
generally  used  under  the  name  of  the  Miller  Plan.  The  author 
probably  can  present  the  matter  in  no  other  way  so  well  as  to 
copy  Doctor  Miller's  original  article  concerning  it  from  the 
American  Bee  Journal,  August,  1912: 

Yet  it  is  not  necessary  to  use  artificial  cells.  The  plan  I  use  for 
rearing  queens  for  myself  requires  nothing  of  the  kind.  And  it  gives 
as  good  queens  as  can  be  reared.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  the  best  plan 
for  those  who  rear  queens  on  a  large  scale  to  sell.  But  for  the  honey 
producer  who  wishes  to  rear  his  own  queens  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
recommending  it.  I  have  reared  hundreds  of  queens  by  what  are  con- 
sidered the  latest  and  most  approved  plans  for  queen  breeders;  and  so 
think  that  I  am  competent  to  judge,  and  I  feel  sure  that  this  simple 
plan  is  the  best  for  me  as  a  honey  producer.  I  will  give  it  as  briefly  as 
possible. 

Into  an  empty  brood  frame,  at  a  distance  of  two  or  three  inches 
from  each  end,  fasten  a  starter  of  foundation  about  two  inches  wide 
at  the  top,  and  coming  down  to  a  point  within  an  inch  or  two  of  the  bot- 
tom bar.  Put  it  in  the  hive  containing  your  best  queen.  To  avoid 
having  it  filled  with  drone-comb,  take  out  of  the  hive,  either  for  a  few 
days  or  permanently,  all  but  two  frames  of  brood,  and  put  your  empty 
frame  between  these  two.  In  a  week  or  so  you  will  find  this  frame 
half  filled  with  beautiful  virgin  comb,  such  as  bees  delight  to  use  for 
queen-cells.  It  will  contain  young  brood  with  an  outer  margin  of  eggs. 
Trim  away  with  a  sharp  knife  all  the  outer  margin  of  comb  which  con- 
tains eggs,  except,  perhaps,  a  very  few  eggs  next  to  the  youngest  brood. 
This  you  will  see  is  very  simple.  Any  beekeeper  can  do  it  the  first  time 
trying,  and  it  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  take  the  place  of  preparing  arti- 
ficial cells. 

Now  put  this  "queen  cell  stuff,"  if  I  may  thus  call  the  prepared 
frame,  into  the  middle  of  a  very  strong  colony  from  which  the  queen 
has  been  removed.  The  bees  will  do  the  rest,  and  you  will  have  as 
good  cells  as  you  can  possibly  have  with  any  kind  of  artificial  cells. 
You  may  think  that  the  bees  will  start  "wild  cells"  on  their  own  comb. 
They  won't;  at  least  they  never  do  to  amount  to  anything,  and,  of  course, 
you  needn't  use  those.  The  soft,  new  comb  with  abundant  room  at 
the  edge,  for  cells,  is  so  much  more  to  their  taste  that  it  has  a  practical 
monopoly  of  all  cells  started.  In  about  ten  days  the  sealed  cells  are 
ready  to  be  cut  out  and  used  wherever  desired. 

This  plan  is  especially  useful  to  the  novice  or  to  the  bee- 
keeper wishing  for  but  a  few  queens  at  one  time.  It  is  simple, 
easy  and  never  failing  under  any  normal  conditions. 

Our  illustration,  Figure  23,  shows  this  method  with  four 
strips  of  foundation  used  to  start,  instead  of  two  as  Doctor 
Miller  suggests  in  his  article. 


BIG     BATCHES     OF     NATURAL     CELLS  57 


Fig.  23.     Queen-cells  built  naturally  by  the  Miller  plan. 

Big  Batches  of  Natural  Cells  by  the  Hopkins  or  Case 

Method. 

Many  extensive  honey  producers  who  desire  to  make 
short  work  of  requeening  an  entire  apiary,  and  who  do  not  care 
to  bother  with  mating  boxes  or  other  extra  paraphernalia,  make 
use  of  the  Case  method,  which  has  been  somewhat  modified 
from  its  original  form.  This  method  is  advocated  by  such  well 
known  beekeepers  as  Oscar  Dines  of  New  York  and  Henry 
Brenner  of  Texas.  The  plan  was  first  used  in  Europe. 

To  begin  with,  a  strong  colony  is  made  queenless  to  serve 
as  a  cell  building  colony.  Then  a  frame  of  brood  is  removed 
from  the  center  of  the  brood  nest  of  the  colony  containing  the 
breeding  queen  from  whose  progeny  it  is  desired  to  rear  the 
queens.  In  its  place  is  given  a  tender  new  comb  not  previously 
used  for  brood  rearing.  At  the  end  of  four  days  this  should 
be  well  filled  with  eggs  and  just  hatching  larvae.  If  the  queen 
does  not  make  use  of  this  new  comb  at  once,  it  should  not  be 


58  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

removed  until  four  days  from  the  time  when  she  begins  to  lay 
in  its  cells.  At  that  time  nearly  all  the  cells  should  be  filled 
with  eggs  and  some  newly  hatched  larvae. 

This  new  comb  freshly  filled  is  ideal  for  cell  building  pur- 
poses. The  best  side  of  the  comb  is  used  for  the  queen  cells 
and  is  prepared  by  destroying  two  rows  of  worker  cells  and  leav- 
ing one,  beginnning  at  the  top  of  the  frame.  This  is  continued 
clear  across  the  comb.  We  will  now  have  rows  of  cells  running 
lengthwise  of  the  comb,  but  if  used  without  further  preparation 
the  queen  cells  will  be  built  in  bunches,  that  it  will  be  impossible 
to  separate  without  injury  to  many  of  them.  Accordingly 
we  begin  at  one  end,  and  destroy  two  cells  and  leave  one  in  each 
row,  cutting  them  down  to  the  midrib  but  being  careful  not  to 
cut  through  and  spoil  the  opposite  side.  Some  practice  destroy- 
ing three  or  four  rows  of  cells,  and  leaving  one  to  give  more 
room  between  the  finished  queen  cells. 

We  now  have  a  series  of  individual  worker  cells  over  the 
entire  surface  of  the  comb,  with  a  half  inch  or  more  of  space 
between  them.  The  practice  varies  somewhat  with  different 
beekeepers  beyond  this  point.  However,  this  prepared  sur- 
face is  laid  flatwise  with  cells  facing  down,  over  the  brood  nest 
of  the  queenless  colony,  first  taking  care  to  make  sure  that  any 
queen  cells  they  may  have  started  are  destroyed.  In  general, 
it  is  recommended  that  the  colony  be  queenless  about  seven 
days  before  giving  this  comb.  By  this  time  there  will  be  no 
larvae  left  in  the  hive  young  enough  for  rearing  queens,  and  the 
bees  will  be  very  anxious  to  restore  normal  conditions.  Some 
beekeepers  simply  take  away  all  unsealed  brood,  rather  than 
leave  the  bees  queenless  so  long. 

As  generally  used,  this  method  requires  a  special  box  or 
frame  to  hold  the  prepared  comb.  This  is  closed  on  one  side 
to  prevent  the  escape  of  heat  upward  and  to  hold  the  comb 
securely  in  place.  Figure  24.  Some  kind  of  support  is  neces- 
sary to  hold  the  comb  far  enough  above  the  frames  to  leave 
plenty  of  room  for  drawing  large  queen  cells.  It  is  also  advis- 
able to  cover  the  comb  with  a  cloth  which  can  be  tucked  snugly 


BIG     BATCHES     OF     NATURAL     CELLS 


59 


Fig.    24.     Frame   for    holding   comb    horizontally   above    brood-nest    for 
getting  queen-cells  by  the  Case  method. 

around  it,  to  hold  the  heat  of  the  cluster.  By  using  an  empty 
comb-honey  super  above  the  cluster,  there  is  room  enough  for  the 
prepared  comb  and  also  for  plenty  of  cloth  to  make  all  snug  and 
warm. 

Strong  colonies  only  should  be  used  for  this,  as  for  any 
other  method  of  queen  rearing.  If  all  conditions  are  favorable, 
the  beekeeper  will  secure  a  maximum  number  of  cells.  From 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  fine  cells  are  not  unusual.  By 
killing  the  old  queens  a  day  or  two  before  the  ripe  cells  are  given 
it  is  possible  to  requeen  a  whole  apiary  by  this  method  with  a 
minimum  of  labor.  According  to  Miss  Emma  Wilson,  it  is 
possible  to  get  very  good  results  by  this  method,  without  mutilat- 
ing the  comb,  although  it  is  probable  that  a  smaller  number  of 
queen  cells  will  be  secured.  By  laying  the  comb  on  its  side 
as  practiced  in  this  connection,  the  cells  can  be  removed  with  a 
very  slight  effort  and  with  a  minimum  of  danger. 


60  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

The  Doolittle  Cell  Gup  Method. 

Nine  queen  breeders  in  every  ten,  it  is  safe  to  say,  use  the 
Doolittle  cell  cups.  While  it  is  possible  to  rear  queens  on  a 
commercial  scale  by  other  methods,  few  queen  breeders  care 
to  do  so.  One  can  control  conditions  so  nicely  by  the  use  of 
artificial  wax  cups  and  can  determine  so  nearly  how  many 
cells  will  be  finished  at  a  given  time,  that  this  method  is  in  all 
but  universal  use  in  commercial  queen  breeding  apiaries.  Most 
of  the  extensive  queen  breeders  count  on  turning  out  queens 
at  a  uniform  rate,  increasing  the  number  as  the  season  advances 
to  keep  pace  with  the  probable  demand.  It  is  of  no  advantage 
to  a  breeder  to  produce  five  hundred  ripe  cells  at  a  time  when  he 
has  market  for  only  a  dozen  queens.  He  estimates  as  nearly 
as  possible  the  demand  for  the  season  and  establishes  a  sufficient 
number  of  mating  nuclei  to  care  for  the  queens  as  they  emerge. 
During  the  height  of  the  season  a  queen  is  only  permitted  to 
lay  enough  eggs  to  enable  the  breeder  to  satisfy  himself  that  she 
is  fertile  and  otherwise  normal.  Queens  thus  follow  each  other 
in  rapid  succession  in  the  various  mating  boxes,  throughout 
the  season. 

It  was  the  difficulty  of  keeping  up  a  dependable  supply  of 
queens  to  supply  his  increasing  trade  that  led  G.  M.  Doolittle 
of  New  York  state  to  experiment  with  artificial  cells.  The 
successful  outcome  of  his  extended  experiments  has  largely 
revolutionized  the  queen  trade.  They  have  already  been  in 
use  for  about  thirty  years.  One  can  make  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  two  hundred  of  these  wax  cups  per  hour,  so  per- 
haps this  plan  can  be  followed  as  easily  as  any  from  the  point 
of  time  required  in  the  various  operations.  Dealers  in  bee 
supplies  now  list  these  artificial  cells  for  sale  at  a  small  price, 
and  many  buy  them  already  prepared.  They  can  be  used 
either  with  or  without  a  wood  cell  base.  When  used  without 
the  base  they  are  attached  to  wood  strips  by  means  of  melted 
beeswax.  However,  the  wood  base  is  very  generally  used, 
since  the  cells  can  be  changed  about  with  much  less  danger 
of  injury.  A  sharp  pointed  tack  is  imbedded  in  the  base,  which 


THE     DOOLITTLE     CELL     CUP     METHOD 


61 


makes  it  very  easy  to  attach  them  to  frame  supports  on  which 
they  are  inserted  into  the  hives.  Figure  25  shows  a  frame  of 
newly  prepared  cells  ready  for  the  hive.  It  will  be  seen  that  a 
strip  of  foundation  is  used  above  the  wood  supporting  the  cell 
cups.  This  will  soon  be  drawn  by  the  bees  and  filled  with  honey. 
More  often  the  beekeeper  cuts  away  part  of  a  comb  already 
drawn  for  use  in  this  way. 

Mr.  Doolittle  used  a  wood  rake  tooth  as  a  form  on  which  to 
mold  the  cells.  Lacking  this,  a  round  stick  about  the  size  of  a 
lead  pencil,  but  with  carefully  rounded  end,  may  be  used.  Bees- 
wax is  melted  in  a  small  dish  over  a  lamp  or  on  a  stove  of  mod- 
erate heat.  It  must  not  be  kept  too  hot,  otherwise  it  does  not 
cool  rapidly  enough.  A  mark  should  be  made  on  the  stick 
nine-sixteenths  of  an  inch  from  the  end,  and  the  stick  dipped 
into  water  to  prevent  the  wax  from  sticking.  After  giving  it  a 
quick  jerk  to  throw  off  the  water  it  is  then  dipped  into  the 
melted  wax  up  to  the  mark.  The  dipping  is  done  quickly, 
twirling  the  stick  around  as  it  is  lifted  out  to  distribute  the 
wax  evenly.  As  soon  as  the  wax  is  sufficiently  hardened,  it  is 
dipped  again,  this  time  not  quite  so  deep.  The  form  is  thus 


Fig.  25.     Frame  of  prepared  cups  by  the  Doolittle  method. 


62  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


dipped  again  and  again,  each  time  lacking  about  a  thirty- 
second  of  an  inch  of  going  as  deep  as  before,  until  the  base  of  the 
cell  is  sufficiently  thick  to  make  a  good  cell. 

These  artificial  cells  answer  the  purpose  as  well  as  those 
built  by  the  bees,  and  if  other  conditions  are  normal  the  bees 
accept  them  readily.  If  wood  blocks  are  used  they  are  now 
ready  to  be  attached  to  the  blocks,  or  if  not,  direct  to  the  wood 
strips.  Figure  25. 

For  use,  it  becomes  necessary  to  supply  each  cell  cup  with 
a  small  amount  of  royal  jelly,  and  then  with  a  toothpick  or 
grafting  tool  carefully  lift  larva,  not  to  exceed  thirty-six  hours 
old,  from  a  worker  cell  and  place  it  on  the  jelly  in  the  prepared 
artificial  cell. 


CHAPTER  VII 
Preparation  for  Cells. 

Whether  one  uses  the  Alley  plan  or  some  of  its  modifica- 
tions, or  the  Doolittle  cell  cup  method,  certain  stages  of  the 
process  of  getting  the  cells  built  may  be  the  same.  A  supply 
of  royal  jelly  will  be  necessary  to  begin  with  only  where  grafting, 
or  changing  the  larvae  from  worker  cells  into  prepared  cells,  is 
practiced.  The  preparation  of  colonies  for  building  cells,  finish- 
ing them  and  caring  for  them  until  ready  for  emergence  of  the 
young  queens,  is  very  similar  by  any  of  these  methods. 

There  are  numerous  variations  of  the  treatment  of  colonies 
in  preparation  for  cell  building,  and  several  of  these  will  be 
described  in  an  effort  to  treat  the  whole  subject  in  a  compre- 
hensive manner. 

Getting  Jelly  to  Start  With. 

If  the  beekeeper  wishes  to  start  cells  early  in  the  season 
before  there  has  been  any  preparation  for  swarming,  it  is  some- 
times difficult  to  secure  a  supply  of  royal  jelly  readily;  especially 
is  this  true  when  the  colonies  are  still  weak  from  wintering. 
The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  look  carefully  for  supersedure  cells, 
when  making  the  spring  examination  of  the  apiary.  Failing 
queens  may  be  replaced  at  any  season,  and  one  or  two  cells 
will  be  built  in  anticipation  of  the  supersedure.  If  a  cell  is 
found,  this  difficulty  is  at  once  disposed  of,  providing  it  is  at 
the  proper  stage.  The  royal  jelly  is  fcund  in  the  bottom  of 
the  queen  cells  and  is  a  thick  white  paste,  very  similar  in  appear- 
ance to  the  paste  ordinarily  used  for  library  purposes  or  mount- 
ing photographs.  Sometimes,  when  it  is  quite  thick,  it  is  de- 
sirable to  thin  it  slightly  by  the  addition  of  a  small  quantity  of 
saliva  or  a  drop  of  warm  water.  Only  a  minute  amount  of 


(34  PRACTICAL  QUEEN  REARING 

jelly  is  placed  in  each  of  the  prepared  cups,  so  that  a  well  sup- 
plied queen  cell  will  provide  a  sufficient  quantity  to  supply 
thirty  to  fifty  of  them. 

If  no  cells  containing  jelly  are  found,  the  usual  plan  is  to 
remove  the  queen  from  a  vigorous  colony  and  permit  them  to 
start  cells.  The  author  very  much  dislikes  to  remove  queens 
except  when  absolutely  necessary,  and  prefers  some  other 
plan.  A  simple  way  is  to  place  a  wire  cloth  over  the  top  of  a 
strong  colony  in  place  of  the  cover.  On  this  set  a  hive  body 
containing  at  least  three  frames  of  brood  in  the  various  stages, 
being  sure  that  there  is  no  queen  on  the  frames,  and  that  there 
is  plenty  of  newly  hatched  larvae.  All  adhering  bees  should  be 
left  on  the  combs.  The  cover  is  then  placed  over  all  and  the 
hive  left  closed  for  two  days,  when  there  will  be  an  abundant 
supply  of  royal  jelly  available. 

The  Author's  Plan. 

The  author,  not  being  engaged  in  queen  rearing  commer- 
cially, can  choose  a  favorable  time  for  rearing  such  queens  as 
are  necessary  to  make  increase  or  for  requeening.  While  the 
method  seldom  fails  even  under  unfavorable  conditions  with 
him,  it  is  very  possible  that  it  might  not  be  .satisfactory  under 
some  conditions. 

To  begin  with,  the  queen  is  found  and  placed,  on  the  comb 
on  which  she  is,  in  an  empty  hivebody.  Sometimes  the  remain- 
der of  the  space  is  filled  with  empty  drawn  combs,  sometimes 
one  or  more  frames  of  brood  are  added,  as  circumstances  dic- 
tate. The  hivebody  containing  the  queen  is  then  placed  on 
the  hivestand  in  the  position  where  the  colony  had  already  been 
placed.  Above  the  hivebody  containing  the  queen  is  placed  a 
queen  excluder,  to  prevent  the  queen  from  going  above.  If 
the  weather  is  warm  so  that  there  is  no  longer  any  danger 
of  chilling  brood  from  dividing  the  cluster  into  two  parts,  an 
empty  set  of  extracting  combs  is  placed  over  the  excluder. 
The  original  hive  containing  most  of  the  brood  is  now  placed 
on  top  of  this  empty  chamber.  Twenty-four  hours  later  the 


TRANSFERRING     THE     LARVAE  65 

bees  are  given  a  frame  of  cellcups  containing  larvae.  These 
cups  are  placed  in  the  hive  in  the  same  manner  as  usual,  except 
that  they  have  no  royal  jelly.  A  thin  syrup  made  with  sugar 
and  water  or  honey  thinned  with  water  is  then  poured  freely 
over  the  tops  of  these  frames.  The  worker  bees  gorge  them- 
selves freely  with  the  syrup  and,  since  the  brood  in  the  upper 
chamber  is  so  far  from  the  queen  below,  the  bees  are  easily 
stimulated  to  start  queen  cells.  Usually  from  one  to  three  of 
these  dry  cells  will  be  accepted,  and  two  days  later  will  furnish 
an  abundant  supply  of  royal  jelly  for  grafting  purposes.  A 
second  lot  of  cells  is  now  prepared  with  jelly,  and  these  are 
given  to  the  bees  in  the  upper  story  in  the  same  manner.  Syrup 
is  poured  over  the  frames  as  freely  as  before,  with  the  result 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  cells  are  likely  to  be  accepted.  The 
author  does  not  claim  that  the  idea  is  altogether  original  with 
him,  but  simply  outlines  it  as  his  method  of  practice.  Feeding 
the  bees  freely  at  the  time  of  giving  a  batch  of  cells  is  rather 
common  practice  among  the  queen  breeders  in  certain  localities. 
By  this  method,  it  is  easily  possible  to  secure  a  supply  of  royal 
jelly  without  dequeening  a  colony  or  interfering  with  the  laying 
of  the  queen.  If  it  is  too  cold  to  place  an  empty  super  between 
the  brood  nest  and  the  brood  in  the  upper  story,  the  plan  will 
usually  work  with  only  the  excluder  between.  After  the  weather 
becomes  warm  enough,  it  is  easily  possible  to  continue  building 
cells  indefinitely  above  the  same  colony,  by  lifting  the  brood 
above  as  fast  as  sealed  in  the  brood  nest.  The  young  bees 
emerging  in  the  upper  chamber  continue  to  supply  nurses  as 
needed.  It  will  be  readily  apparent  that  to  be  successful  this 
plan  requires  a  strong  colony. 

Transferring  the  Larvae. 

Some  beekeepers  make  a  practice  of  placing  a  frame  of 
cellcups  in  the  hive  over  night  in  advance  of  the  grafting.  The 
idea  is  that  the  bees  will  work  them  over,  smooth  and  polish 
them,  thus  placing  them  in  more  attractive  condition  for  the 
acceptance  of  the  prepared  cells.  The  author  has  never  been 


66  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

able  to  convince  himself  that  this  plan  brings  enough  better 
results,  in  practice,  to  justify  the  extra  trouble,  where  large 
numbers  of  queens  are  to  be  reared. 

The  cellcups  are  placed  in  the  wood  bases  and  fastened  in 
place  as  shown  in  Figure  25.  Commercial  queen  breeders 
usually  have  two  or  three  bars  of  cells  in  each  frame  instead  of 
only  one.  About  fifteen  cellcups  to  each  bar  is  not  unusual, 
so  that  with  a  liberal  number  accepted  it  is  often  possible  to 
get  from  thirty  to  forty  finished  cells  in  each  batch.  Figure  26. 

At  this  stage  the  grafting  house  described  on  page  31  is 
very  desirable.  The  queen  cells  from  which  the  royal  jelly 
is  to  be  taken,  together  with  the  prepared  cellcups  and  a  frame 
of  newly  hatching  brood  from  the  breeding  colony  are  now  taken 
to  the  grafting  house  or  into  a  warm  room  for  the  final  prepara- 
tion. For  transferring  the  jelly  and  the  larvae,  there  are  spe- 
cially prepared  tools  in  the  market.  These  look  very  much  like 
knitting  needles  wTith  one  end  flattened  and  slightly  bent  to 
one  side.  However,  one  can  do  very  well  with  a  quill  cut  down 
to  a  strip  about  a  sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  width,  with  the  end 
bent  in  similar  manner.  Even  a  toothpick  can  be  made  to 
serve  -quite  well. 

An  ingenious  device  for  transferring  larvae  is  described  by 
John  Grubb  of  Woodmont,  Pa.  He  uses  a  small  stick  of  wood 
about  three-sixteenths  of  an  inch  thick  and  four  inches  long, 
one  end  of  which  is  whittled  down  to  a  long  tapering  point. 
A  long  horsehair  is  doubled,  then  twisted  together,  and  doubled 
again.  Both  ends  are  laid  on  the  stick,  the  circular  center 
extending  beyond  the  end.  Fine  thread  is  wrapped  around  the 
hair  and  the  stick,  to  hold  all  firmly.  The  doubled  hair  makes 
a  circle  about  a  tenth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  beyond  the  pointed 
end  of  the  stick.  With  this  horsehair  spoon  it  is  an  easy  mat- 
ter to,  lift  a  larva  from  a  cell  and  transfer  it  to  a  cellcup.  It 
is  easily  and  quickly  made  and  materials  necessary  are  usually 
within  easy  reach. 

First  a  bit  of  royal  jelly  is  placed  in  each  cellcup,  and  then 
a  larva  about  twenty-four  to  thirty-six  hours  old  is  carefully 
lifted  from  its  cell  and  placed  on  the  jelly.  There  is  some 


TRANSFERRING     THE  'LARVAE 


67 


Fig.  26.     A  batch  of  cells  by  the  cell-cup  method. 


68 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  proper  age  of  larvae,  but  all 
agree  that  larvae  more  than  three  days  old  should  never  be 
used.  Nobody  holds  that  better  queens  can  be  reared  from 
larvae  two  days  old  than  from  younger  larvae,  although  some 
think  that  as  good  results  can  be  obtained.  The  majority  seem 
to  favor  larvae  from  twelve  to  twenty-four  hours  old,  with  some 


Fig.  27.     Larvae  not  to  exceed  thirty-six  hours  old  should  be  used  for 

grafting. 


TRANSFERRING     THE     LARVAE  69 

strong  advocates  of  thirty-six  hours  as  the  proper  age.  Figure 
27.  However,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  twenty-four  to  thirty- 
six  hours  is  as  old  as  larvae  should  be  for  this  purpose.  Prob- 
ably up  to  this  age  as  good  or  better  results  will  be  obtained  as 
from  the  use  of  younger  ones. 

Something  has  already  been  said  about  the  importance 
of  selecting  the  breeding  stock  carefully.  This  is  a  vital  mat- 
ter if  good  results  are  to  come  from  the  breeder's  work.  The 
larvae  used  in  grafting  should  be  the  product  of  the  best  queen 
available. 

At  Figure  27  we  show  the  magnified  larvae  in  the  cells 
at  about  the  proper  age  for  grafting.  Sladen  recommends 
that  larvae  not  quite  as  large  as  a  lettuce  seed  be  used.  With 
a  little  experience  one  will  soon  come  to  tell  readily  the  ap- 
proximate age  of  the  larvae  by  the  appearance. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Getting  Cells  Started. 

For  building  cells 
one  must  have  strong 
colonies,  Figure  28,  and 
to  insure  this  condition, 
one  must  have  his  bees 
in  good  shape  in  early 
spring.  While  it  is  of- 
ten advocated  that 
stimulative  feeding  be 
resorted  to  early,  in 
order  to  build  the  col- 
onies up  to  a  sufficient 
strength,  the  author  in- 
clines to  the  belief  that 
colonies  in  two  stories 
will  build  up  just  as 
rapidly  if  there  is  an 
abundance  of  sealed 
honey  in  the  hive,  as  is 
possible  with  stimula- 
tive feeding.  Sometimes  it  seems  that  uncapping  a  portion 
of  the  honey  has  a  stimulating  effect,  but  feeding  in  small 
quantities,  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  the  bees  to  greater 
activity,  rarely  seems  necessary  until  the  time  comes  to  give 
them  the  cells.  At  this  time  feeding  is  often  needed  in  order 
to  get  large  batches  accepted  and  finished.  When  honey 
is  coming  in  from  natural  sources,  feeding  is,  of  course,  unneces- 
sary. 

The  real  problem  is  to  get  the  bees  into  the  right  temper 
to  accept  the  cells  readily,  and  finish  a  large  portion  of  them 
properly.  This  point  has  been  touched  upon  rather  indirectly, 

71 


Fig.  28.      Only  strong  colonies  should  be 
used  for  building  or  finishing  cells. 


72  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

already,  under  the  discussion  of  the  various  methods.  A  strong 
colony  which  is  preparing  to  supersede  the  queen  is  very  desir- 
able at  this  time.  Such  a  colony  will  accept  cells  readily  and 
will  supply  them  with  royal  jelly  abundantly.  No  better  cells 
can  be  had  than  those  built  in  a  supersedure  colony.  It  will 
pay  to  look  through  the  apiary  very  carefully  in  search  of  such 
a  colony,  rather  than  to  resort  to  artificial  conditions.  A  colony 
which  is  preparing  to  swarm,  will  do  very  well,  also,  only  they 
must  be  watched  carefully,  to  make  sure  that  a  swarm  does 
not  issue  as  soon  as  the  cells  are  sealed.  When  a  colony  is 
found  to  have  queen  cells  already  built  which  contain  eggs  or 
larvae,  these  cells  may  be  destroyed  and  a  frame  of  prepared 
cells  given.  Little  attention  need  be  paid  to  the  presence  of 
the  queen,  for  she  will  not  disturb  the  new  cells  under  such  con- 
ditions. 

If  no  colony  is  to  be  had  which  is  already  in  the  cell-build- 
ing notion,  it  then  becomes  necessary  to  stimulate  the  cell- 
building  instinct  artificially.  There  are  several  methods  of 
doing  this. 

Removing  Queen  and  Brood. 

Probably  the  most  generally  practiced  method  is  to  take 
a  strong  colony,  and  remove  the  queen  and  all  unsealed  brood. 
Empty  combs  and  those  which  contain  only  honey  and  pollen 
are  left  in  the  hive.  The  queen  should  be  placed  in  a  nucleus, 
or  given  to  another  colony  where  needed.  All  bees  should  be 
carefully  brushed  from  the  combs  containing  the  brood  in  order 
to  leave  as  large  a  force  of  nurse  bees  as  possible.  The  brood 
is  then  given  to  another  colony  to  be  cared  for. 

About  ten  or  twelve  hours  later  the  bees  will  be  in  the  mood 
to  build  queen  cells.  Being  without  brood,  the  nurse  bees 
will  be  abundantly  supplied  with  food  for  the  larvae,  and  will 
accept  a  batch  of  prepared  cells  very  eagerly. 

When  giving  the  cells,  it  is  well  to  follow  the  practice  of 
some  of  the  most  extensive  breeders  and  feed  liberally  at  the 
moment,  to  insure  a  larger  portion  of  cells  accepted.  For  this 
purpose  an  ordinary  garden  sprinkler  serves  very  well.  Thin 


REMOVING  QUEEN  AND  BROOD  73 

sugar  syrup  is  sprinkled  freely  over  the  tops  of  the  frames  as 
described  previously.  The  bees  gorge  themselves  in  cleaning 
up  the  syrup  and  anxiously  seek  larvae  to  be  fed.  This  method 
of  feeding  is  desirable  at  the  time  of  giving  cells  by  any  method. 

Some  breeders  leave  the  prepared  cells  in  the  colony  to 
which  they  are  first  given  until  they  are  sealed.  However,  a 
larger  number  of  first  class  cells  will  usually  be  secured  by  work- 
ing two  colonies  together,  one  as  a  cell-building  colony  and  the 
second  as  a  cell-finishing  colony.  The  cell-finishing  colony 
should  be  equally  strong  with  the  cell-starting  colony,  but  not 
all  the  brood  is  taken  from  it.  At  the  time  that  the  brood  is 
taken  from  the  first  colony,  part  of  the  brood  is  removed  from 
another,  and  the  remainder  raised  above  an  excluder,  leaving 
the  queen  in  the  brood  nest  below  on  one  frame  of  brood,  and 
with  empty  combs  in  which  to  continue  laying.  This  we  will 
call  the  finishing  colony. 

Twenty-four  hours  after  the  prepared  cells  have  been  given 
to  the  queenless  and  broodless  bees  in  the  cell-starting  hive,  we 
will  probably  find  most  of  the  cells  partly  built,  and  the  larvae 
abundantly  supplied  with  royal  jelly.  If  we  leave  them  as 
they  are,  some  of  these  cells  are  likely  to  be  neglected,  so  that 
not  all  will  come  to  maturity.  We  may  now  safely  remove  these 
cells  and  after  carefully  brushing  off  the  nurse  bees  with  a 
feather,  give  them  to  the  cell-finishing  colony,  placing  the  frames 
above  the  excluder.  By  this  time  the  bees  in  the  second  colony 
will  have  been  forty-eight  hours  separated  from  the  'queen 
which  still  remains  below  the  excluder.  Since  no  eggs  have 
been  laid  with  the  brood  above  for  this  period,  the  bees  are 
in  much  the  same  condition  as  a  colony  with  a  failing  queen 
and  accordingly  accept  the  cells  as  readily,  as  a  rule,  as  a  super- 
sedure  colony  will  do. 

When  the  batch  of  started  cells  is  taken  from  the  starting 
colony,  it  is  given  a  second  lot  of  newly  prepared  cells.  This 
may  be  repeated  regularly  for  some  time.  However,  the  same 
bees  cannot  serve  as  nurses  for  very  long  and  it  will  be  necessary 


74 


PRACTICAL  QUEEN  REARING 


to  supply  the  starting 
colony  with  frames  of 
sealed  brood  ready  to 
emerge  at  frequent  in- 
tervals if  the  same  col- 
ony is  used  as  a  cell- 
starting  colony  for  more 
than  ten  days.  ^Usually 
the  number  of  cells  ac- 
cepted in  each  batch 
will  soon  begin  to  di- 
minish, so  that  it  will 
be  desirable  to  prepare 
another  colony  for  this 
purpose  after  eight  or 
ten  days. 

There  is  a  great 
difference  in  individual 
colonies  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  cells  built,  and 
it  sometimes  becomes 

necessary  to  experiment  a  bit  to  find  the  best_colonies  for  this 
purpose.  Some  colonies  will  build  double  the  number  of  cells 
that  others  will  build.  An  extensive  breeder  will  find  it  neces- 
sary to  have  several  cell-building  colonies  at  one  time.  Figure 
29  shows  a  strong  cell-finishing  colony  at  the  Davis  apiary  in 
Tennessee. 

The  Swarm  Box. 

Alley  used  much  the  same  plan  as  above  described,  except 
that  he  first  found  the  queen  and  then  shook  all  the  bees  into 
a  swarm  box  which  is  made  by  placing  a  wirecloth  bottom  and 
cover  on  an  ordinary  box  of  suitable  size.  The  bees  were 
smoked  before  shaking  them  into  the  box  to  induce  them  to 
gorge  themselves  with  honey,  and  then  they  were  confined  in 
the  box  from  morning  until  evening.  The  wirecloth  admits 
plenty  of  air  and  by  the  time  the  bees  are  placed  in  a  hive  for 


Fig.  29.     A  strong  cell-finishing  colony. 


REARING  QUEENS  IN  QUEENRIGHT  COLONIES          75 

cell  building,  they  will  recognize  their  hopelessly  queenless  con- 
dition, and  be  ready  to  accept  the  prepared  cells  with  little 
delay.  Alley  gave  eggs  in  strips  of  natural  comb,  instead  of 
the  prepared  cells,  it  will  be  remembered,  but  the  principle 
is  the  same.  He  left  the  bees  queenless  in  the  swarm  box  for 
at  least  ten  hours.  He  also  fed  the  bees  syrup  while  confined 
in  the  box. 

Rearing  Queens  in  Queenright  Colonies. 

The  author  prefers  to  rear  queens  in  a  queenright  colony, 
since  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  maintain  normal  conditions  over  a 
long  period  of  time,  and  the  bees  are  not  so  sensitive  to  fluctua- 
tions in  weather  conditions  or  honeyflow.  It  is  not  always 
possible  to  make  a  success  with  the  first  batch  of  cells  given 
by  this  plan,  but  once  accepted  the  same  colony  can  be  kept 
busy  rearing  cells  for  weeks,  or  even  all  summer  if  desired. 

One  plan  which  is  followed  by  successful  breeders  is  to 
select  a  strong  colony  for  cell  building.  Remove  the  cover, 
and  put  a  queen  excluder  in  its  place.  Then  take  enough 
frames  of  brood  from  several  different  colonies  to  fill  a  second 
brood-chamber  above  the  excluder,  leaving  one  vacant  space. 
Care  must  be  used  to  make  sure  that  no  queen  is  on  the  frames 
placed  in  the  second  story.  The  vacant  space  is  left  as  near 
the  center  of  the  colony  as  possible,  and  a  few  hours  later  a 
frame  of  prepared  cells  is  placed  there,  feeding  the  bees  with 
syrup  from  the  sprinkling  can  at  the  time  the  cells  are  given. 
If  this  first  batch  of  cells  is  not  readily  accepted  try  again  the 
following  day.  After  four  days  a  second  batch  can  be  given, 
and  a  new  batch  every  four  days  thereafter.  By  this  plan  the 
cells  are  left  with  the  colony  until  ready  to  be  given  to  the 
nuclei.  It  only  becomes  necessary  to  add  two  or  three  frames 
of  sealed  brood  every  week  to  provide  the  colony  with  plenty 
of  young  bees  for  nurses,  to  continue  cell  building  indefinitely. 
About  ten  to  fifteen  sealed  cells  can  be  secured  from  a  single 
colony  every  four  days  by  this  plan.  If  a  heavy  honeyflow  comes 
on,  it  may  become  necessary  to  add  supers  between  the  brood 


76  PRACTICAL  QUEEN  REARING 


nest  below  and  the  cell-building  chamber  above,  since  the  old 
queen  continues  to  lay  in  normal  manner  below  the  excluder. 
By  this  method  the  cell-building  colony  will  give  a  crop  of  honey 
as  well  as  queens.  The  addition  of  so  much  brood  from  other 
colonies  will  keep  the  cell-building  colony  very  strong  through- 
out the  season.  Of  course,  frames  of  honey  must  be  removed 
from  time  to  time  as  frames  of  brood  are  given,  and,  during  a 
good  flow,  it  may  become  necessary  to  remove  frames  of 
honey  quite  often  to  prevent  crowding  in  the  cell-building 
chamber. 

Feeding. 

During  a  dearth  of  nectar  it  often  becomes  necessary  to 
resort  to  stimulative  feeding  to  induce  the  bees  to  continue 
cell  building  by  any  of  these  methods.  Of  course,  a  queenless 
colony  will  build  some  cells  under  almost  any  conditions,  but 
to  get  good  cells  in  sufficient  numbers,  a  fresh  supply  of  food 
must  continue  coming  to  the  hive  daily.  If  there  is  none  in  the 
field  a  pint  or  more  of  thin  syrup  should  be  fed  daily,  preferably 
at  night,  to  prevent  robbing. 


CHAPTER   IX 
Care  of  Finished  Cells. 

About  four  days  after  the  prepared  cell  cups  are  given 
to  the  bees,  the  finished  cells  will  be  sealed,  Figure  30.  If  the 
weather  is  warm  they  may  be  placed  in  cages  and  transferred 
to  other  colonies  for  safe  keeping,  until  time  for  the  young 
queens  to  emerge.  However,  in  cool  weather,  there  is  danger 
that  the  young  queens  will  be  chilled  and  injured,  if  the  cells 
are  placed  in  cages  so  that  the  nurses  can  no  longer  warm  them 
by  direct  contact.  Most  breeders  leave  the  cells  to  the  care 
of  the  bees  until  the  evening  of  the  ninth  day.  The  cells  are 
then  caged  or  given  directly  to  the  nuclei,  where  they  are  to  be 


Fig.  30.     Finished  cells  by  the  Doolittle  method, 

77 


78  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

mated.  In  general,  it  is  better  to  place  the  cell  at  once  in 
the  nucleus. 

Great  care  must  always  be  used  in  handling  sealed  queen 
cells.  Any  slight  jar  is  likely  to  dislodge  the  nymph  from  its  bed 
of  royal  jelly  and  injure  it  seriously.  The  bees  which  may  cluster 
about  the  cells  may  be  driven  off  by  smoking  them  or  by  care- 
fully brushing  them  away.  The  longer  the  cells  are  left  undis- 
turbed, the  less  the  danger  of  injury  to  the  young  queens.  The 
bees  should  never  be  shaken  from  a  frame  containing  queen 
cells. 

It  is  necessary  to  separate  cells  built  by  the  Alley  plan  by 
cutting  with  a  sharp  knife.  The  knife  should  be  kept  warm 
to  get  best  results.  Otherwise,  instead  of  cutting  freely  it  may 
simply  crush  the  wax  and  injure  a  cell.  Figure  21  shows  how 
the  cells  may  be  cut  apart. 

It  is  important,  also,  to  keep  the  cells  right  side  up  at  all 
times.  Some  breeders  use  a  cell  block  such  as  may  be  seen  at 
Figure  22.  This  enables  the  breeder  to  carry  a  whole  batch 
to  the  apiary  to  be  placed,  one  at  a  time,  in  the  nuclei,  without 
danger  of  injuring  them. 

It  often  happens  that  a  batch  of  cells  will  be  ripe  and  the 
nuclei  not  yet  ready  to  receive  them  for  one  reason  or  another. 
In  that  case,  candy  should  be  placed  in  the  nursery  cages,  and 
the  cells  placed  in  them  on  the  ninth  or  tenth  day  after  the  cells 
are  given  to  the  bees.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  queens 
will  emerge  on  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  day  after  the  eggs  were 
laid.  Should  a  virgin  queen  emerge  before  the  cells  are  removed 
and  cared  for,  she  is  likely  to  destroy  at  once  all  that  remain. 
Thus  all  the  beekeeper's  labor  is  for  naught. 

It  is  necessary  to  exercise  some  care  in  extremely  hot  weath- 
er to  avoid  overheating  the  cells  when  carrying  them  about  in 
the  hot  sun.  Well  known  queen  breeders  admit  having  lost 
valuable  cells  on  more  than  one  occasion  by  overheating  through 
exposure  to  direct  sunshine  on  a  hot  day. 

In  placing  the  cells  in  the  nuclei  the  cell  should  be  gently 
pushed  into  the  side  of  a  comb  just  above  the  brood,  if  there  is 
brood.  However,  it  often  happens  that  no  brood  is  present 


USE    OF   CELL   PROTECTORS 


79 


Fig   31.      Placing  cell  in  nucleus  without  brood. 

in  a  nucleus  when  a  cell  is  placed.     In  that  event  it  should  be 
set  into  the  comb  near  the  center  of  the  hive.     Figure  31. 

Use  of  Cell  Protectors. 


If  a  nucleus  has  been  queenless  for 
twelve  hours  when  a  ripe  cell  is  introduced, 
there  will  seldom  be  any  need  for  using 
protectors.  However,  it  often  happens 
that  the  breeder  will  have  ripe  cells  ready 
which  he  wishes  to  place  as  fast  as  the 
queens  are  removed.  When  the  bees 
destroy  queen  cells  they  do  so  by  opening 
the  cell  at  the  side,  and  never  from  the 


Fig.  32. 
C  ell    protectors. 


80 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


end.  Taking  advantage  of  this  fact  a  wire  protector  has  been 
made  which  remains  open  at  the  end,  thus  permitting  the  queen 
to  emerge  without  further  attention,  Figure  32.  By  the  time 
the  queen  is  ready  to  emerge,  the  bees  will  discover  the  absence 
of  the  old  queen  and  the  newcomer  will  be  welcomed. 

Formation  of  Nuclei. 

In  the  chapter  on  equipment  for  queen  rearing,  the  various 
styles  of  mating  boxes  and  hives  have  been  described.  If 
the  standard  hive  is  used,  the  formation  of  nuclei  is  a  simple 
matter.  As  many  colonies  as  may  be  needed  to  make  the  de- 
sired number  of  nuclei  are  broken  up,  and  the  combs  together 
with  adhering  bees  are  placed  in  the  nuclei.  One  frame  with 
the  old  queen  is  left  in  the  old  hive,  and  it  is  usually  well  to 
leave  a  second  frame  of  brood  with  her,  to  enable  her  to  build 


Fig.  33.     A  queen-mating  yard  composed  of  standard  hives,  each  divided 

into  two  parts. 


STOCKING  MATING  BOXES   OR  BABY   NUCLEI          81 

up  the  colony  again  more  rapidly.  The  rest  of  the  space  is 
filled  with  empty  combs.  One  frame  of  brood  and  bees,  to- 
gether with  one  empty  comb  or  one  containing  honey,  is  placed 
in  each  nucleus,  Figure  33.  The  entrance  is  then  stopped  with 
grass  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  bees  for  several  hours.  By 
the  time  they  have  gnawed  their  way  out  they  will  become 
accustomed  to  the  new  condition,  and  most  of  them  will  remain 
in  the  new  position.  Unless  the  frame  given  is  well  supplied 
with  brood,  it  is  desirable  to  give  two  frames  to  each  nucleus. 

A  day  or  two  later  sealed  queen  cells  may  be  given  safely. 
As  the  season  advances,  the  demand  for  queens  increases,  and 
the  breeder  will  find  it  necessary  to  increase  the  number  of 
mating  nuclei.  As  each  queen  is  allowed  to  lay  for  a  short 
time  in  the  nucleus  before  caged  for  shipment,  many  of  the 
nuclei  will  build  up  rapidly.  From  time  to  time  one  will  be 
found  which  can  spare  a  frame  of  brood  and  bees  as  already 
described.  At  the  close  of  the  season  these  nuclei  are  united 
to  make  them  strong  enough  to  winter  as  full  colonies. 

Stocking  Mating  Boxes  or  Baby  Nuclei. 

Much  difficulty  is  sometimes  experienced  in  getting  the 
bees  to  stay  in  these  small  hives.  The  plan  usually  recommended 
is  to  shake  the  bees  into  a  wirecloth  cage  and  confine  them 
there  for  several  hours.  Four  or  five  hours  later  run  in  a  virgin 
queen  among  them.  At  nightfall,  shake  them  into  the  mating 
box  and  leave  them  undisturbed  for  a  few  days.  Some  of  the 
old  bees  may  return  to  their  former  hive  the  next  morning, 
but  most  of  them  are  likely  to  remain.  There  is  some  danger 
that  they  may  swarm  out  with  the  queen  when  she  comes 
out  for  her  mating  flight.  However,  after  one  queen  has  been 
successfully  mated  and  there  is  some  brood  in  the  little  hive, 
there  will  be  less  trouble  with  the  next  one.  These  little  hives 
must  be  watched  to  make  sure  that  they  do  not  at  any  time 
become  short  of  food,  otherwise  they  sometimes  swarm  out  and 
leave  the  brood. 

The  available  space  is  so  small  that  the  queen  can  be  left 


82  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

but  a  very  short  time.  The  two  little  combs  are  soon  filled 
with  eggs  and  with  no  more  room  to  lay,  the  queen  may  lead  a 
small  swarm,  and  thus  desert  the  hive. 

Another  plan  of  stocking  these  hives  is  to  shake  a  lot  of 
bees  from  several  hives  into  a  box  with  wirecloth  top  and  bottom 
similar  to  the  Alley  swarm  box,  and  keep  them  confined  for 
several  hours.  It  is  desirable  that  these  bees  be  brought  from 
a  distance,  if  possible.  When  ready  to  stock  the  mating  hives, 
wet  the  bees  enough  to  prevent  flying  readily  and  dip  them  out 
with  a  tin  dipper,  turning  a  sufficient  quantity  into  each  com- 
partment. A  supply  of  virgin  queens  is  ready  at  hand,  and  as 
each  compartment  is  filled,  a  virgin  is  dropped  into  a  dish  of 
honey  and  then  into  the  compartment  with  the  bees.  The 
entrance  is  opened  at  night  to  prevent  the  loss  of  bees  before 
the  excitement  subsides.  This  is  the  plan  practiced  at  the 
Root  yards. 


CHAPTER   X 
Combining  Mating  with  Making  of  Increase. 

The  usual  methods  of  artificial  increase,  such  as  division 
or  formation  of  nuclei  to  be  built  up,  weaken  the  colony  to  a 
considerable  extent.  Should  the  season  prove  unfavorable 


Fig.  34.     A  queen-rearing  apiary  in  Tennessee. 
83 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


after  nuclei  are  formed,  it  may  be  necessary  to  feed  them  for 
a  long  period  of  time,  only  in  the  end  to  find  it  necessary  to 
unite  them  again  to  get  them  strong  enough  for  winter.  Get- 
ting queens  mated  in  an  upper  story  is  not  new;  yet  there  are  some 
elements  in  the  following  plan  which  differ  somewhat  from 
methods  previously  given  to  the  public. 

The  author  has  experimented  to  a  limited  extent  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  plan  which  takes  nothing  from  the  parent 
colony,  other  than  the  honey  necessary  to  rear  the  brood  com- 
posing the  new  colony.  There  is  no  risk,  since  the  old  colony 
is  not  weakened  by  removing  part  of  the  field  force,  and  the 
division  is  not  made  until  the  new  colony  is  strong  enough  to 
shift  for  itself  under  almost  any  conditions.  The  following 
plan  comes  near  realizing  this  ideal,  having  been  uniformly 
successful  in  a  limited  way,  even  under  unfavorable  conditions. 
This  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  system  of  swarm  control  in  the  pro- 


Fig.  35.     Queen-mating  nuclei  under  the  pine  trees  of  Alabama. 


COMBINING  MATING  WITH  MAKING  OF  INCREASE       85 

duction  of  extracted  honey,  as  described  in  Productive  Beekeep- 
ing. 

If  the  extracted  honey  producer  can  keep  his  colony  to- 
gether during  the  season,  he  should  be  able  to  get  maximum 
results.  Some  increase  is  necessary  in  most  any  apiary,  with 
any  kind  of  system,  to  replace  such  colonies  as  are  lost  through 
failing  queens,  poor  wintering  or  other  causes,  even  though 
the  beekeeper  does  not  care  to  make  extensions. 

If  the  bees  can  be  kept  from  swarming  and  the  young 
queen  be  mated  in  a  separate  compartment,  she  can  rear  her 
own  colony  in  due  time,  and  they  can  be  removed  without 
reducing  the  product  of  the  old  queen,  whose  progeny  will 
remain  with  the  parent  colony. 

To  begin  with,  when  the  colony  becomes  populous,  place 
the  queen  on  a  frame  of  brood  in  an  empty  hivebody  and  fill 
out  with  empty  combs.  This  is  set  on  the  regular  hivestand 
occupied  by  the  colony.  The  working  force  coming  from  the 
field  will  find  their  queen  with  an  abundance  of  room  in  which 
to  lay.  This  is  the  system  of  swarm  control  advocated  by 
Demaree  to  this  point.  Now  place  a  queen  excluder  over  the 
hivebody  containing  the  queen,  and  over  this,  a  super  of  empty 
combs.  On  top  of  these  is  set  the  original  hivebody  contain- 
ing the  brood.  A  hole  is  bored  in  this  upper  hivebody  to  give 
the  bees  an  extra  entrance  above.  About  twenty-four  hours 
later  a  ripe  queen  cell  is  placed  in  the  upper  story  with  the 
brood.  The  queen  will  emerge  in  a  day  or  two,  and,  in  due 
time,  will  leave  the  hive  on  her  mating  flight,  by  way  of  the 
augur  hole.  Within  a  few  days  more  she  will  be  laying  in  the 
upper  hivebody,  while  the  activities  of  the  bees  will  continue 
without  interruption  in  the  lower  story.  Within  three  weeks 
all  the  brood  from  the  old  queen  (in  the  upper  story)  will  have 
emerged.  The  brood  which  now  appears  in  the  upper  story 
is  a  net  addition  to  the  resources  of  the  colony,  and,  when  the 
upper  story  is  nearly  filled  with  brood,  it  can  be  removed  and 
placed  on  a  new  stand  without  checking  the  work  of  the  colony. 

To  illustrate:  A  strong  colony  was  given  a  queen  cell 
as  above  described  on  May  21st.  On  July  14th,  the  upper 


86  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

hivebody  with  a  young  queen  and  seven  frames  of  brood  were 
removed  to  form  a  new  colony.  The  strength  of  the  parent 
colony  was  little  affected  apparently.  Possible  swarming  had 
been  prevented,  temporarily  at  least,  by  the  Demaree  plan 
of  placing  the  old  queen  in  the  empty  hive  below.  There  were 
two  colonies  better  than  any  parent  colony  and  swarm  we  had 
that  season.  In  this  way  there  had  been  no  risk  or  loss.  The 
new  colony  was  not  removed  from  its  parent  until  both  were 
provided  for,  neither  was  the  possible  crop  cut  short  by  dividing 
the  working  force  of  the  parent  colony  at  a  critical  time. 

After  three  years  of  success  with  this  method  the  author 
feels  confident  that  it  will  prove  successful  on  a  large  scale. 
Both  queens  can  be  left  in  the  hive  until  the  close  of  the  honey- 
flow  if  desired,  but  there  is  little  to  be  gained  by  leaving  the 
queen  above  after  her  chamber  is  filled  with  brood.  If  both 
are  left  in  the  hive  until  late  in  the  fall,  one  of  the  queens  is 
likely  to  disappear. 

If  desired,  the  process  can  be  repeated  as  soon  as  the  upper 
story  has  been  removed,  as  by  this  time  the  old  queen  will  have 
filled  the  lower  story  with  brood  again.  By  beginning  early, 
it  should  be  possible  to  make  two  and  possibly  three  new  colonies, 
without  reducing  the  honey  crop  from  the  parent  colony  to  a 
serious  extent. 

This  same  plan  might  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  mating 
additional  queens  while  making  some  increase,  by  the  breeder 
who  wishes  to  accomplish  both  ends  at  the  same  time.  The 
method  is  particularly  valuable  to  the  honey  producer  who  wish- 
es to  make  some  increase  or  rear  queens  for  use  in  his  own  apiary, 
without  reducing  the  honey  crop.  If  increase  is  not  especially 
desired,  the  same  plan  can  be  worked  for  the  purpose  of  super- 
seding queens.  When  the  young  queen  has  become  nicely 
established  in  the  upper  chamber,  the  old  queen  can  be  removed 
from  below  and  the  position  of  the  bodies  reversed.  It  would 
be  well  to  permit  both  queens  to  continue  laying  until  the  height 
of  the  honeyflow,  in  order  to  get  as  large  a  field  force  as  possible 
for  storing  the  crop. 


CHAPTER  XI 
Shipping  Queens. 

The  Benton  cage,  Figure  36,  is  almost  universally  used  in 
this  country  for  shipping  purposes.  So  generally  is  it  used, 

that  it  is  as  staple  as  any  other  item 
of  beekeeping  equipment,  and  can  be 
purchased  through  any  dealer  in 
supplies.  While  cages  ready  stocked 
with  candy  are  offered  for  sale,  most 
queen  breeders  prefer  to  make  their 
Fig.  36.  Qwn  canc[y  ancj  thus  save  some  cost, 

The    Benton    mailing  cage. 

as  well  as  making  it  fresh  as  needed. 

Making  the  Candy. 

Candy  for  queen  cages  is  made  of  honey  and  sugar.  Under 
the  postal  regulations  it  is  necessary  to  boil  the  honey  for  at 
least  thirty  minutes,  unless  the  apiary  from  which  it  and  the 
queens  are  taken  has  been  inspected  by  some  duly  qualified 
officer,  who  is  authorized  to  issue  a  certificate  of  health. 

Care  must  be  used,  also,  to  make  sure  that  the  sugar  used 
contains  no  starch.  Powdered  sugar  is  used  for  candy  making, 
and  some  powdered  sugar  contains  starch,  which  is  detrimental 
to  the  bees  confined  for  long  in  the  cages. 

Heat  the  honey  and  stir  in  as  much  of  the  powdered  sugar 
as  can  be  mixed  in  by  stirring.  When  no  more  can  be  added 
by  stirring,  spread  the  powdered  sugar  on  a  mixing  board  and 
remove  the  dough  to  the  board  and  mix  it  like  a  batch  of  bis- 
cuits. Some  experience  is  necessary  to  determine  when  it  is 
just  the  right  consistency,  neither  too  hard  nor  too  soft. 

According  to  Root,  boiled  honey  as  required  by  the  postal 
regulations,  does  not  give  satisfactory  results  where  queens  are 
confined  for  long  journeys.  Since  the  idea  of  the  regulation  is 

87 


88  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

to  prevent  the  spread  of  disease  through  the  honey,  he  recom- 
mends the  use  of  invert  sugar  as  a  substitute  for  the  honey. 

Another  kind  of  candy  made  without  the  use  of  honey, 
is  used  by  some  breeders.  This  is  made  by  using  12  pounds  of 
granulated  sugar,  1^  pounds  candy-makers'  glucose,  \y^ 
quarts  of  water  and  y$  teaspoonful  of  cream  of  tartar.  The 
cream  of  tartar  and  glucose  are  added  to  the  water  and  heated 
together  in  a  kettle.  The  sugar  is  added  after  the  mixture 
comes  to  a  boil,  stirring  continually  while  putting  in  the  sugar. 
After  the  sugar  has  all  been  dissolved,  stop  stirring  and  let  it 
heat  to  238  degrees.  Then  remove  from  the  fire  and  let  cool 
to  120  degrees,  and  stir  again  until  it  looks  like  paste,  when  it  is 
ready  for  use. 

Caging  the  Queens. 

With  a  few  trials,  one  will  shortly  get  the  knack  of  catching 
a  queen  off  the  comb  by  her  wings.  Holding  the  cage  open  end 
downward  in  one  hand,  it  is  easy  to  so  place  her  head  in  the  open- 
ing that  she  will  catch  her  front  feet  on  the  wood,  and  readily 
climb  up  into  the  cage.  When  she  goes  in,  the  thumb  should 
be  placed  over  the  opening  until  a  worker  is  caught,  and  ready 
to  follow  in  similar  manner.  The  novice  at  queen  rearing  often 
makes  the  mistake  of  placing  too  few  bees  in  the  cage  with  a 
queen.  It  is  well  to  place  as  many  workers  in  the  cage  as  there 
is  room  for,  without  crowding,  especially  if  the  journey  to  be 
taken  is  a  long  one.  As  a  rule  the  queen  will  be  the  last  to  die, 
if  the  bees  are  in  normal  condition  when  placed  in  the  cage. 
It  often  happens  that  queens  received  from  a  distant  place  are 
still  alive,  with  all  their  attendant  workers  dead  in  the  cage. 
Of  course  the  queen  would  not  much  longer  survive  after  the 
workers  were  all  dead.  If  the  candy  is  properly  made  and  suffi- 
cient in  quantity,  a  queen  will  often  live  for  several  weeks  in 
a  cage,  with  sufficient  attendants. 

After  queens  are  caged  they  should  be  placed  in  the  mails  as 
quickly  as  possible  to  avoid  confining  them  longer  than  is  neces- 
sary. Although  they  live  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  cages, 
one  can  hardly  believe  that  the  confinement  is  conducive  to 


GRADING  89 

the  health  of  the  queen,  and  the  shorter  the  time  necessary 
to  get  her  to  her  destination,  the  better. 

What  the  Buyer  has  a  Right  to  Expect. 

When  a  man  sends  his  money  for  a  queen  in  response  to 
an  advertisement,  he  has  a  right  to  expect  that  no  inferior 
queens  be  sent,  even  though  he  buy  untested  stock.  Some 
breeders  have  the  reputation  of  sending  out  mismated  queens 
that  have  been  laying  for  a  period  long  enough  to  show  the  fact, 
as  untested  queens.  While  few  breeders  guarantee  that  un- 
tested queens  will  be  purely  mated,  to  knowingly  send  out  mis- 
mated  stock,  to  fill  orders  for  untested  queens,  is  certainly 
dishonest.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  no  reputable  breeder  would 
do  so.  The  breeder  who  expects  to  establish  a  paying  business 
has  no  asset  so  valuable  as  the  confidence  of  his  customers, 
and  this  is  only  secured  by  sending  out  good  stock  and  standing 
ready  to  be  more  than  reasonable  in  making  good  any  losses. 

The  buyer  has  reason  to  expect  that  he  will  receive  pure 
queens,  carefully  reared;  that  the  breeder  shall  maintain  his 
mating  nuclei  in  localities  as  free  as  possible  from  impure  stock, 
and  entirely  free  from  disease. 

Grading. 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  practice  of  different  breed- 
ers in  the  way  queens  are  graded.  Some  advertise  only  three 
grades,  untested,  tested  and  select  tested  queens.  Others 
make  five  or  more  grades,  adding  select-untested  queens  and 
breeders.  There  should  be  some  effort  made  to  establish  a 
standard  by  which  a  buyer  can  tell  in  advance  what  he  is  likely 
to  get  from  an  order  for  any  one  of  these  grades. 

In  general,  an  untested  queen  is  one  which  has  been  mated 
and  has  been  permitted  to  lay  for  a  few  days,  but  not  long 
enough  for  the  emergence  of  the  workers.  Breeders  who 
make  it  a  rule  to  send  out  all  queens  which  are  reared,  regardless 
of  quality,  are  not  likely  to  build  up  a  permanent  business. 


90  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

No  poor  queens  should  be  sent  out  in  any  case,  except  by  special 
understanding,  and  then  not  for  breeding  purposes.  There 
is  a  small  demand  for  queens  for  scientific  purposes,  which  can 
be  supplied  with  mismated  or  otherwise  inferior  stock  without 
injury  to  anyone.  Such  queens  should  never  be  sent  to  a  bee- 
keeper for  introduction  into  normal  colonies  for  honey  pro- 
duction. 

A  tested  queen  is  generally  one  which  has  been  permitted 
to  lay  until  her  workers  begin  to  emerge,  and  thus  by  their 
markings  demonstrate  the  pure  mating  of  their  mother.  She 
should  properly  demonstrate  other  qualities  also.  Select- 
tested  and  extra  select- tested  or  choice  select-tested  queens  are,  of 
course,  queens  which  for  one  reason  or  another  are  more  promis- 
ing than  the  average  of  tested  queens.  Too  many  grades 
offers  a  good  chance  for  the  breeder  to  get  an  extra  price  from 
a  buyer,  without  giving  an  equivalent  in  value.  It  is  very  true 
that  queens  showing  unusual  traits  are  worth  more  than  the  gen- 
eral run  of  queens,  but  it  is  difficult  to  grade  the  different  de- 
grees of  behaviour  into  a  half  dozen  different  classes  and  always 
give  a  uniform  value. 

Virgin  queens,  are  of  course,  unmated  queens.  While 
there  may  be  occasionally  a  good  reason  for  the  purchase  of 
virgins,  as  a  rule  the  practice  is  not  to  be  encouraged.  The 
difficulty  of  introducing  a  virgin  after  she  is  several  days  old 
and  consequent  danger  of  loss,  is  one  good  reason  why  they 
should  not  be  shipped.  The  danger  that  they  will  become  too 
old  for  mating  before  a  favorable  opportunity  is  offered,  is 
another.  The  breeder  who  confines  his  business  principally 
to  the  sale  of  untested  queens,  and  who  gives  good  value  for  the 
price  asked,  is  the  one  who  has  the  fewest  complaints. 

Much  dissatisfaction  arises  from  the  sale  of  breeding  queens 
at  high  prices.  The  buyer  who  pays  five  or  ten  dollars  for  a 
breeding  queen,  will  too  often  expect  too  much  of  her,  and, 
consequently,  be  disappointed.  Then  it  often  happens  that  a 
queen  old  enough  to  demonstrate  her  value  as  a  breeder,  will  be 
superseded  shortly  after  her  introduction  into  a  strange  colony. 


GRADING  91 

Queens  that  have  been  laying  heavily  suffer  seriously  from  the 
confinement  in  a  small  cage  and  the  journey  through  the  mails. 
Often  they  will  never  do  as  well  for  the  buyer  as  they  have 
done  previously,  and  he  is  inclined  to  feel  that  he  has  not  been 
treated  fairly.  As  a  rule,  the  same  money  invested  in  young 
untested  queens,  will  bring  far  better  results  to  the  buyer,  as 
well  as  being  better  for  the  seller.  If  a  half  dozen  young  queens 
are  purchased  from  a  breeder  with  good  stock,  at  least  one  of 
them  is  quite  likely  to  prove  excellent.  The  best  queen  that 
the  author  ever  has  known  he  secured  as  an  untested  queen  at  a 
nominal  price.  There  is  probably  no  extensive  queen  rearing 
yard  which  would  part  with  as  good  a  queen  for  fifty  dollars 
after  she  had  demonstrated  her  value.  In  fact,  she  would  not 
be  for  sale  at  any  price,  for  she  would  be  too  valuable  as  a  breed- 
er. Yet  the  chances  are  that,  after  she  had  demonstrated  her 
ability  by  outdoing  everything  else  in  the  apiary  for  three  suc- 
cessive seasons,  she  would  be  superseded  within  a  few  weeks 
after  being  sent  through  the  mails. 

Buyers  should  bear  in  mind  that  old  queens  which  have 
laid  heavily  for  one  or  more  seasons,  cannot  be  expected  to  re- 
peat their  former  performances  after  a  journey  by  mail.  Such 
queens  can  only  be  shipped  safely  on  combs  in  a  nucleus,  where 
they  can  continue  laying  lightly  for  some  time.  Someone  has 
compared  the  sudden  checking  of  the  work  of  a  laying  queen, 
with  the  shipment  of  a  cow,  which  is  a  heavy  milk'er,  without 
drawing  her  milk  for  several  days.  Neither  can  be  expected 
to  be  as  good  again. 


CHAPTER   XII 

The  Introduction  of  Queens. 

In  order  to  be  successful  in  the  introduction  of  queens,  it  is 
necessary  to  overcome  the  antagonism  of  the  colony  toward 
a  stranger.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  normally,  a  strange 
bee  will  be  recognized  as  an  enemy  or  a  robber  and  at  once 
driven  out  or  killed.  In  order  that  the  queen  be  welcomed 
as  a  member  of  the  community,  it  is  necessary  that  she  be 
permitted  to  acquire  the  colony  odor,  and  that  she  become  some- 
what familiar  with  her  new  surroundings  so  that  she  will  not 
manifest,  by  her  own  excitement,  the  fact  that  she  is  a  stranger. 
There  are  many  indications  of  the  colony  odor  and,  in  the  absence 
of  proof  to  the  contrary,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  bees  depend 
upon  this  common  odor  as  a  means  of  identification  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  community. 

There  are  many  different  methods  of  introduction  of  queens, 
which  are  followed  with  greater  or  lesser  degrees  of  success. 
All  these  methods  may  be  divided  into  two  classes:  those  which 
depend  upon  the  confinement  of  the  queen  until  she  acquires 
the  common  characteristics  of  the  hive,  as  the  cage  methods; 
and  those  which  create  such  an  abnormal  condition  and  so  much 
confusion  in  the  hive,  that  the  undue  excitement  of  one  or  more 
individuals  will  not  be  noticed,  as  the  smoke  or  other  direct 
methods. 

Under  the  first  plan,  the  bees  are  at  first  antagonistic  to  the 
new  queen,  which  is  recognized  as  a  stranger,  but  are  unable 
to  reach  her  because  of  the  barrier  furnished  by  the  screen 
covering  the  cage.  After  a  time  the  bees  recognize  the  fact 
that  no  other  queen  is  present  in  the  hive,  the  antagonism  dis- 
appears, and  she  is  accepted  as  the  natural  mother  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Under  any  method  in  the  second  class,  the  colony  is  thrown 
into  a  state  of  excitement  and  uproar,  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
agitation  and  fear  manifested  by  the  new  queen,  upon  finding 

93 


94 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


Fig.  37.     The  Miller  introducing  cage, 


herself  in  a  strange  hive,  will  not  be  apparent  to  the  bees,  since 
they  are  also  in  a  state  of  confusion.  By  the  time  the  excite- 
ment subsides,  the  foreign  odor  of  the  new  queen  will  no  longer 
be  apparent,  and  she  will  settle  down  to  the  business  of  egg  lay- 
ing as  though  she  had  always  been  present  in  the  hive.  By  this 
method  it  is  the  usual  way  to  remove  the  old  queen  either 
shortly  before  or  just  at  the  time  the  new  queen  is  introduced. 

Details  of  Cage  Methods. 

All  the  variations  of  the  cage  method  are  comparatively 
simple.     The  old  queen  is  first  removed  from  the  hive  and  the 

new  one  is  introduced 
in  a  cage,  Figure  37. 
Probably  the  safest 
method  of  all  is  the 
one  where  the  queen  is 
placed  alone  in  a  cage  that  covers  a  small  patch  of  emerging 
brood.  The  emerging  bees  are,  of  course,  friendly  enough, 
and  within  two  or  three  days  she  will  be  laying  in  her  small 
enclosure  and  surrounded  by  a  small  group  of  attendants 
who  found  her  present  when  they  emerged.  The  cage  is  then 
carefully  removed,  and  the  comb  replaced  in  the  hive  with  as 
little  disturbance  as  possible.  Such  a  cage  is  made  with  a 
piece  of  ordinary  wirecloth  about  four  inches  square,  sometimes 
smaller.  Each  of  the  four  corners  is  cut  away  for  about  three 
quarters  of  an  inch.  The  four  sides  are  then  bent  down, 
forming  a  wire  box  open  at  the  bottom.  The  queen  is  placed 
under  this  and  the  wire  pressed  into  the  comb.  It  is  well  to 
have  a  few  cells  of  sealed  honey  inside  the  cage,  although  the 
bees  are  likely  to  feed  the  queen  through  the  meshes  of  the  cage. 
When  this  plan  is  used  in  a  hive  where  no  brood  is  present, 
some  newly  emerged  workers  should  be  placed  in  the  cage  with 
the  queen.  The  attitude  of  the  bees  toward  the  queen  will 
determine  when  it  is  safe  to  release  her.  If  on  opening  the  hive, 
the  cage  is  found  to  be  covered  with  a  tight  cluster  of  bees,  she 
would  be  balled  immediately  if  released.  When  the  bees  are 


DETAILS     OF     CAGE     METHODS 


95 


found  to  be  paying  but  little  attention  to  her  presence,  it  is 
usually  safe  to  remove  the  cage. 

The  Benton  mailing  cages  are  stocked  with  candy  before 
the  queens  are  confined.  Usually  there  will  be  quite  a  little 
of  this  candy  still  left,  at  the  time  the  queens  are  to  be  introduced. 
If  so,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  remove  the  old  queen,  remove 
the  paper  across  the  exit  hole  which  is  filled  with  candy,  and  leave 
it  to  the  bees  to  remove  the  candy,  and  release  the  queen.  It  is 
likely  to  require  from  one  to  three  days  to  remove  the  candy,  and 
by  that  time,  there  is  little  danger  to  the  new  queen.  If  but  little 
candy  remains,  the  paper  should  be  left  over  the  hole  for  a  day  or 
two  before  removing.  When  the  paper  is  removed,  if  the  candy  is 
almost  gone,  a  little  broken  comb  honey  may  be  pushed  into  the 
cavity.  Bees  are  likely  to  be  friendly  to  the  queen  which  has  been 
caged  in  the  hive  for  two  days,  and  the  bees  which  remove  the 
honey  are  likely  to  gorge  themselves  to  the  point  of  quietude. 

Some  beekeepers  by  going  to  a  little  extra  trouble,  insure 


Fig.  38.     A  Mississippi  queen-rearing  apiary. 


96  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

success  by  this  method.  When  new  queens  are  ordered  they 
cage  the  old  queens  in  the  hive  until  the  newcomers  arrive. 
The  old  queens  are  then  destroyed,  and  the  new  ones  placed  in 
the  same  cages  and  replaced  in  the  same  hives.  The  cages 
have  already  acquired  the  hive  odors,  and  the  bees  have  become 
accustomed  to  the  presence  of  their  queens  in  the  cages.  By 
the  time  the  candy  has  been  removed,  there  is  a  very  small 
element  of  danger. 

Direct  Introduction. 

The  easiest  time  for  direct  introduction  of  queens  is  during 
a  heavy  honeyflow.  At  such  a  time  the  bees  will  be  in  a  con- 
stant state  of  activity  because  of  the  wealth  of  honey  coming 
in,  and  queens  can  be  introduced  with  a  minimum  of  danger. 
At  such  times,  the  author  has  gone  to  the  hives  to  be  requeened, 
caught  the  old  queens  and  run  in  the  new  ones,  with  little  effort 
to  disarrange  the  affairs  of  the  community,  yet  the  plan  worked 
with  entire  success  with  colony  after  colony.  Many  of  the  di- 
rect methods  which  are  so  successful  during  a  honeyflow,  must 
be  followed  very  carefully  under  other  conditions,  or  failure 
will  result. 

There  are  several  of  the  direct  methods,  familiarly  known  as 
smoke  method,  flour  method,  water,  and  honey  methods,  etc. 
The  same  principle  underlies  them  all.  In  every  case  the  object 
is  to  develop  such  an  abnormal  condition  within  the  hive,  that 
the  change  of  queens  can  be  made  without  the  fact  being  dis- 
•  covered  by  the  bees. 

The  smoke  method  has  recently  been  exploited  as  something 
new.  Some  of  the  details  of  the  practice  are  all  that  is  new, 
for  Alley  described  a  similar  way  of  introducing  queens  by  means 
of  tobacco  smoke  as  long  ago  as  1885.  He  directed  as  follows: 
"When  tobacco  smoke  is  used  to  introduce  them,  throw  some  grass 
against  the  entrance  to  keep  the  smoke  in  and  the  bees  from  coming 
out.  Blow  in  a  liberal  amount  of  smoke,  and  then  let  the  queen  run  in 
at  the  top  through  the  hole  used  for  the  cone-feeder." 

The  method  as  advocated  by  A.  C.  Miller  does  not  antici- 
pate the  use  of  tobacco,  but  the  ordinary  smoke  always  avail- 


DIRECT     INTRODUCTION 


97 


able  to  the  beekeeper  with  a  lighted  smoker.     He  describes  his 
plan  as  follows: 

"A  colony  to  receive  a  queen  has  the  entrance  reduced  to  about 
a  square  inch  with  whatever  is  convenient,  as  grass,  weeds,  rags  or  wood, 
and  then  about  three  puffs  of  thick  white  smoke — because  such  smoke 
is  safe — is  blown  in  and  the  entrance  closed.  It  should  be  explained 
that  there  is  a  seven-eighths  inch  space  below  the  frames,  so  that  the 
smoke  which  is  blown  in  at  the  entrance,  readily  spreads  and  penetrates 
to  all  parts  of  the  hive.  In  from  fifteen  to  twenty  seconds  the  colony 
will  be  roaring.  The  small  space  at  the  entrance  is  now  opened;  the 
queen  is  run  in,  followed  by  a  gentle  puff  of  smoke,  and  the  entrance 
again  closed  and  left  closed  for  about  ten  minutes,  when  it  is  reopened, 
and  the  bees  allowed  to  ventilate  and  quiet  down.  The  full  entrance 
is  not  given  for  an  hour  or  more,  or  even  until  the  next  day." 

Neither  of  the  smoke  methods  above  given,  nor,  for  that 
matter,  most  of  the  direct  methods,  are  entirely  reliable  under 
adverse  conditions.  The  great  advantage  in  the  use  of  such 
a  method  is  the  saving  in  time.  Some  queen  breeders  of  the 
author's  acquaintance  have  used  the  smoke  method  extensively 
for  this  reason,  and  with  good  success.  Introducing  a  queen 
which  is  taken  from  a  hive  or  nucleus  and  given  at  once  to  anoth- 


Fig.  39.      A  queen-rearing  apiary  in  Georgia. 


98  PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 

er,  is  a  much  simpler  matter  than  the  introduction  of  a  queen 
which  has  been  caged  for  a  week  and  probably  travelled  several 
hundred  miles  in  a  mailbag,  where  she  had  opportunity  to  ac- 
quire all  kinds  of  foreign  odors.  The  experienced  man  will 
soon  learn  when  he  can  with  safety  depend  upon  a  short  cut, 
and  when  there  is  danger  in  doing  so. 

Honey  and  Flour  Methods. 

These  methods  are  similar  except  that  in  one  case  honey  is 
used  and  in  the  other  case  flour  is  the  medium.  The  honey 
method  is  used  with  good  success  in  introducing  virgins  to  bees 
in  packages,  after  they  have  been  confined  for  a  few  hours. 
The  queen  is  simply  dropped  into  a  cup  of  honey  and  entirely 
submerged  in  it,  and  then  dropped  in  among  the  bees,  which  at 
once  proceed  to  clean  her  up.  For  introducing  queens  into  full 
colonies,  this  plan  does  not  always  succeed. 

Where  the  queen  is  covered  with  flour,  she  may  be  accepted 
or  not,  depending  much  upon  other  conditions.  Where  the 
honey  method  is  used,  the  queen  is  much  more  likely  to  be 
accepted  if  the  honey  in  which  she  is  dipped  is  taken  from  the 
hive  to  which  she  is  to  be  given,  at  the  time  of  her  introduction. 

Water  Method. 

This  method  requires  a  little  more  trouble,  but  is  generally 
successful  according  to  reports,  and  also  according  to  the  auth- 
or's experience.  The  bees  are  shaken  from  the  combs,  and 
sprinkled  with  water  until  they  are  soaking  wet.  The  new 
queen  is  wet  likewise  and  dropped  on  the  pile  of  wet  bees  in 
the  bottom  of  the  hive.  The  combs  are  then  replaced  and  the 
hive  covered. 

Neither  of  these  methods  is  attractive,  since  it  hardly  seems 
like  proper  treatment  to  give  a  valuable  queen. 

Introduction  of  Virgins. 

A  newly  emerged  queen  while  she  is  still  downy,  say  within 
half  an  hour  of  the  time  of  her  emergence,  can  be  run  into  any 


INTRODUCTION     OF     VIRGINS  99 

queenless  colony  or  nucleus  with  safety.  The  bees  are  appar- 
ently conscious  that  any  bee  of  such  a  tender  age  is  incapable 
of  harm,  and  she  is  accepted  as  a  child  of  the  community. 
For  such,  it  is  not  necessary  to  provide  any  artificial  stimulus 
of  any  kind;  smoke,  flour,  or  water  are  all  unnecessary. 

Virgins  that  are  four  or  five  days  old  are  more  difficult 
to  introduce,  than  are  fertile  queens.  Alley  recommended  dip- 
ping the  virgin  in  honey,  thinned  with  a  little  water  as  above 
described,  and  then  dropping  her  into  the  queenless  hive.  He 
wrote  that  virgins  could  only  be  introduced  successfully  to 
colonies  that  had  been  queenless  for  at  least  three  days.  It 
has  often  been  advised  to  leave  colonies  queenless  for  this  per- 
iod before  introducing  fertile  queens,  but  the  author  prefers 
to  give  a  fertile  queen  immediately  on  removing  the  old  queen. 
With  virgins  there  is  a  larger  element  of  danger. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
Spreading  Disease  from  the  Queen  Yard. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  much  of  the  responsibility 
for  the  present  wide-spread  prevalence  of  foulbrood  must  be 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  careless  queen  breeder.  Foulbrood  has 
been  introduced  into  many  localities  by  the  purchase  of  queens 
from  diseased  apiaries.  The  queen  breeder  cannot  use  too 
much  care  in  keeping  his  apiary  and  his  locality  free  from  dis- 
ease. In  any  event,  queens  should  not  be  mailed  to  purchasers 
from  an  apiary  where  disease  is  present.  In  our  present  state 
of  knowledge  of  European  foulbrood,  it  is  uncertain  in  just 
what  manner  the  disease  is  spread,  but  it  is  very  probable  that 
a  queen  bee,  taken  from  a  diseased  colony,  might  be  the  means 
of  introducing  it  into  a  healthy  colony,  even  though  no  honey 
or  bees  accompany  her. 

It  is  reasonably  certain  that  there  is  little  danger  of  the 
spread  of  American  foulbrood,  except  in  the  honey  from  dis- 
eased colonies.  The  postal  regulation  which  requires  that  honey 
used  to  make  candy,  to  stock  queen  cages  to  be  sent  through 
the  mails,  be  boiled  for  thirty  minutes,  is  supposed  to  meet  all 
requirements.  While  this  may  be  true,  as  far  as  American 
foulbrood  is  concerned,  it  is  not  sufficient  protection  for  the 
purchaser,  from  European  foulbrood  or  paralysis. 

The  late  O.  O.  Poppleton  related  something  of  his  experience 
with  paralysis,  to  the  writer.  For  a  time  he  had  serious  losses 
among  his  bees  from  this  disease.  He  was  finally  able  to  trace 
the  trouble  to  the  introduction  of  queens  from  the  yards  of  a 
well  known  breeder.  By  requeening  all  his  yards  with  a  dif- 
ferent strain  of  bees,  he  was  able  to  eliminate  the  disease. 
Later  he  introduced  the  same  disorder  to  his  apiaries  again 
with  queens  from  another  source.  On  investigating  the  matter, 
he  was  surprised  to  learn  that  the  man  from  whom  he  bought 

101 


102 


PRACTICAL     QUEEN     REARING 


the  new  lot  of  queens,  had  previously  purchased  a  breeding 
queen  from  the  breeder  from  whom  he  had  first  contracted  the 
disease.  It  accordingly  became  necessary  to  requeen  his  apiaries 
with  new  stock,  a  second  time,  to  get  rid  of  paralysis. 

Diseases  of  adult  bees  are,  as  yet,  but  little  understood; 
but  it  is  quite  probable  that  there  are  several  different  diseases, 
all  of  which  are  known  under  the  general  name  of  paralysis. 
It  is  very  evident  that  this  trouble,  whatever  its  nature,  is 
widely  disseminated  by  the  sale  of  queens  and  bees  in  packages. 
The  trouble  has  long  been  prevalent  in  the  south,  especially 
in  Florida,  but,  of  late,  it  is  becoming  common  in  many  northern 
localities.  It  has  attracted  special  notice  in  Wisconsin  and 
Washington.  In  dry  and  warm  seasons  it  is  not  serious,  but  in 
cold  and  damp  summers  becomes  a  serious  problem. 

Cases  have  been  called  to  the  writer's  attention,  where 
all  the  bees  introduced  from  a  certain  locality  have  died  with 


Fig.  40.     A  Minnesota  queen  yard. 


SPREADING  DISEASE  FROM  THE  QUEEN  YARD          103 

this  disorder,  while  the  stock  which  had  previously  been  pres- 
ent in  the  apiary  remained  in  healthy  condition. 

If  the  business  of  queen  breeding  is  to  remain  permanent 
and  profitable,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  concerted  action  be 
taken,  looking  to  the  control  of  shipment  of  queens  or  bees 
from  diseased  apiaries.  The  buyer  should  be  assured  that  he 
will  not  endanger  his  future  prospects  by  buying  queens  anywhere 
that  they  are  offered.  About  the  only  solution  that  seems  readily 
apparent  is  federal  supervision  of  queen  yards.  An  increasing 
number  of  expert  beekeepers  are  being  employed  in  the  exten- 
sion service  of  the  United  States  department,  and  these  could 
be  used  to  inspect  all  queen-breeding  apiaries  at  least  once  each 
year,  in  connection  with  their  other  work. 

Several  of  the  states  have  provision  for  the  inspection  of 
queen-breeding  apiaries,  and  withhold  certificates  of  health 
from  apiaries  where  disease  is  found.  However,  not  all  the 
states  have  inspection  and  those  that  have  do  not  have  uniform 
regulations.  The  shipment  of  both  bees  and  queens  is  becom- 
ing so  general  that  uniform  interstate  'regulations  are  very  de- 
sirable. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  author,  the  future  of  the  business 
depends  very  much  on  the  attitude  which  the  queen  breeders, 
as  a  class,  assume  toward  this  question. 


Books    On   Beekeeping   For    Sale  by 
American  Bee  Journal 


the 


LANGSTROTH  ON 

THE  HONEY 

BEE 

REVISED  BY  DADANT. 

THIS  book  originally  written 
by  Rev.  L.  L.  Langstroth, 
the  inventor  of  the  movable 
frame  hive,  has  been  revised  and 
kept  up  to  date  by  the  editor  of 
the  American  Bee  Journal.  It 
is  the  one  book  that  no  bee- 
keeper can  afford  to  be  with- 
out. It  contains  careful  and 
accurate  accounts  of  the  life  and 
habits  of  the  honey  bee  and  the 
mysteries  of  the  hive.  Full  and 
reliable  information  concerning 
the  detection  and  treatment  of 
disease,  the  sources  of  nectar  and 
pollen,  and  the  care  of  the  apiary 
throughout  the  year  are  included. 
The  best  methods  of  producing 
and  marketing  large  crops  of 
honey  are  made  clear.  This 
book  is  nicely  bound  in  attrac- 
tive cloth  cover  and  contains 
575  pages.  The  price  is  very 
low  for  a  book  of  the  size  and 
quality.  Sent  postpaid  for  $1.50, 
or  with  the  American  Bee  Jour- 
nal one  year  both  for  only  $2.00. 
Canada  postage,  15  cents  extra. 
It  is  published  in  3  foreign  lan- 
guages, French,  Spanish  and 
Russian,  at  a  slightly  advanced 
price. 


1,000  QUESTIONS  ABOUT  BEES 

ANSWERED  BY  DR.  C.  C.  MILLER. 

T71OR  many  years  Doctor  Miller  has  conducted  the  question  and  answer  department 
1  in  The  American  Bee  Journal.  During  that  time  he  has  answered  questions 

relating  to  every  phase  of  beekeeping.  These  questions  have  been  sifted  and 
arranged  by  M.  G.  Dadant  and  are  now  offered  in  book  form. 

No  matter  what  your  problem  is,  you  will  find  the  answer  in  this  book,  for  bee- 
keepers of  all  ages  and  all  stages  of  experience  have  brought  their  queries  to  Doctor 
Miller.  This  book  is  intended  to  supplement  the  regular  text  books  on  beekeeping, 
and  will  be  an  invaluable  aid  to  every  beekeeper,  whether  he  be  a  novice  or  an  expert. 

The  texts  tell  a  connected  story  of  bee  life  and  the  principles  of  honey  produc- 
tion, while  this  takes  up  singly  the  many  questions  that  confront  the  beekeeper  in  his 
everyday  practice  in  the  apiary.  Dozens  of  subjects  not  mentioned  in  the  ordinary 
text  and  special  angles  of  many  other  subjects  which  have  been  overlooked  elsewhere 
are  taken  up  and  made  clear  by  the  most  popular  writer  on  beekeeping. 

Should  be  included  in  every  list  of  bee  books. 

Attractive  cloth  cover;  200  pages;  $1.25. 

As  a  premium  with  The  American  Bee  Journal.  Price  with  one  year's  subscrip- 
tion, $1.75.  Canadian  postage  15  cents  extra. 


Books   On   Beekeeping    For    Sale  by   the 
American  Bee  Journal 


PRODUCTIVE   BEE- 
KEEPING 

BY    FRANK    C.    PELLETT 

ONE  of  the  latest  text  books  on  bee- 
keeping, by  the  former  State  Apiarist 
of  Iowa  and  Staff  correspondent  of 
The  American  Bee  Journal,  as  its  name  indi- 
cates, is  a  book  for  the  practical  man.  Easily 
understood  by  the  beginner,  it  covers  the 
field  of  practical  honey  production  very  fully 
and  is  a  valuable  book  of  reference  for  the 
extensive  honey  producer.  The  author  enjoys 
a  wide  acquaintance  among  leading  beekeepers 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada  and  has 
described  the  systems  of  management  which 
are  successfully  employed  under  a  wide  range 
of  conditions.  The  best  methods  have  been 
studied,  sifted  and  excellently  arranged. 

A  Lippincott  Farm  Manual,  134  illustra- 
tions, 320  pages. 

CONTENTS— 


LIPPINCOTT'S 

FARM  MANUALS 


PRODUCTIVE 
BEE-KEEPING 


9.     Production  of  Comb  Honey. 

10.  Production  of  Extracted  Honey. 

1 1 .  Wax,  A  By-Product. 

12.  Diseases  and  Enemies  of  Bees. 

13.  Wintering. 

14.  Marketing  the  Honey  Crop. 

15.  Laws  That  Concern  the  Bee- 

keeper. 

Price,  $1.75,  postpaid. 
With  American  Bee  Journal,  1  year,  $2.50. 


Beekeeping  a  Fascinating  Pursuit. 

The  Business  of  Beekeeping. 

Making  a  Start  With  Bees. 

Arrangement  of  the  Apiary. 

Sources  of  Nectar. 

The  Occupants  of  the  Hive. 

Increase. 

Feeding. 

Durable  cloth  binding'. 


FIRST  LESSONS  IN  BEEKEEPING 

BY  C.  P.  DADANT. 

FOR  many  years  a  book  under  the  above  title  has  been  in  the  market.  It 
was  originally  written  by  Thos.  G.  Newman,  and  later  revised  by  C.  P. 
Dadant. 

While  the  present  book  bears  the  same  title,  it  is  entirely  new  and  has  been  rewrit- 
ten from  beginning  to  end.  Even  though  you  have  the  old  book,  you  will  want  the 
new  one  also,  for  it  is  a  far  better  book  than  the  old  one  ever  was,  and  it  is  right  up  to 
date. 

The  senior  editor  of  The  American  Bee  Journal,  who  is  the  author  of  the  New 
First  Lessons,  has  spent  nearly  all  his  life  in  a  beekeeping  atmosphere.  His  father, 
the  late  Charles  Dadant,  was  an  investigator  who  became  well  known  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  whose  writings  have  been  translated  into  several  languages.  As  a 
young  man  the  author  of  First  Lessons  was  associated  with  his  father  in  honey  produc- 
tion and  assisted  him  in  the  many  experiments  which  he  conducted  in  his  efforts  to 
make  beekeeping  a  practical  business. 

Of  late  Mr.  Dadant  has  traveled  extensively,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
is  familiar  with  the  best  methods  of  honey  production  and  with  the  leading  beekeepers 
of  many  countries.  With  a  lifetime  of  practical  experience  and  such  unusual  oppor- 
tunities for  observation,  C.  P.  Dadant  is  especially  fitted  to  prepare  a  book  for  the 
beginning  beekeeper. 

Just  the  things  you  want  to  know,  in  a  style  easily  understood,  and  with  many 
pictures  to  explain  the  text. 

You  may  safely  recommend  First  Lessons  in  Beekeeping  to  your  friends. 

200  pages,  cloth,  fully  illustrated.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.00.  With  the 
American  Bee  Journal,  1  year  $1.75.  Canadian  postage  15  cents  extra. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

SCIENCE  LIBRARY 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 

To  renew  by  phone,  call  459-2050. 

Books  not  returned  or  renewed  within  14  days 

after  due  date  are  subject  to  billing. 


Series  2477 


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